Overhaulin'... Canuck Style

When the Canucks lost that oh so important game to San Jose last season, ending their playoff hopes, the talks began. They began amongst Canucks management (of that I am sure), and they began amongst my circle of Canuck crazy friends. In fact, we began talking before the season was over: if the Canucks didn't make the playoffs, Cloutier would be traded, and the team dismantled.

How right we were.

It all started a few weeks ago. Was it a major PR play by Nonis to announce just a day before the NHL draft took place in Vancouver, that Bertuzzi was going to Florida in exchange for Luongo? Maybe.

In that first week we said goodbye to Bert, Allen and Auld, and hello to Luongo, Krajicek and a 6th round draft pick. And then Jovo was traded to Phoenix and Ruutu to Pittsburgh. In came Willie Mitchell, who took a pay cut so he could play in Vancouver, the team he grew up watching and admiring. Then the Twins re-signed (thank god!), but the current rumour is that Carter won't re-sign. So we are left with a gaping hole in the blue line (but, supposedly have a superstar goalie between the pipes), and our first and second lines have been partially dismantled.

Whose left (at least for now): Naslund, Morrison, Cooke, Linden, Park, Salo, Ohlund, some of the farm team guys (like Burrows), and a couple of guys we picked up at the end of last season.

It is going to be a very different Canuck team and a very different season, and I for one, cannot wait.

And here's hoping Luongo doesn't fall into the goalie death trap vortex that appears to exist beneath the city of Vancouver.