Spitballin鈥� (or Super Pass It To Bulis: All In, if you love adventurous acronymizing) is a feature that allows us to touch on a multitude of things really fast, because in the world of hockey, there are always lots of things to find and colour. Here are a few quick topics.
Laurence Gilman talks Bo Horvat on TSN 1040
Former Canucks assistant general manager Laurence Gilman made an appearance on TSN 1040 on Wednesday, taking questions from Canucks fans. He also , revealing a few interesting nuggets of information.
One thing he said is that the Canucks knew they wanted Bo Horvat all along at the draft. 鈥淲e knew were taking Horvat,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n fact, we were negotiating with teams that were higher than New Jersey.鈥�
He did say that they didn鈥檛 have Horvat at the top of their draft list, specifically mentioning Aleksander Barkov, who has been outstanding for the Panthers, but it鈥檚 clear that they were far higher on Horvat that we even realized at the time. They anticipated him becoming a top two-way player.
鈥淥ur position on Bo at the time was that we felt he was going to be a player cut in the same mold as a Patrice Bergeron or a Jonathan Toews without the prolific offensive upside,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat I don鈥檛 think we anticipated was that he would be a 20-goal, 50-point player in his third professional season.鈥�
鈥淗e鈥檚 ahead of the developmental curve that we saw at the time,鈥� he added, 鈥渂ut he has been everything else that we anticipated he would be in terms of the two-way player that he is, the type of individual, high-character.鈥�
Except that not all of that is true. They were expecting him to be a shutdown second-line centre, but it鈥檚 fascinating to see that the offence has come faster than expected, but the defensive side hasn鈥檛 at all. He鈥檚 not the two-way centre they anticipated. At least, not yet.
He also touched on Horvat鈥檚 ongoing contract negotiations: 鈥淚f I鈥檓 representing him, it doesn鈥檛 start anywhere less than 5 (million).鈥�
One other note: he suggests that he and Mike Gillis were too slow to make changes to their scouting department. 鈥淚f I were to go back, I think we might have waited too long to put Eric Crawford in charge.鈥�
Brock Boeser scores a weird one in Da Beauty League
As part of his off-season training, Brock Boeser is taking part in Da Beauty League, weekly scrimmages with other NHL and college players. Boeser 听and added another this week.
It was an odd goal.
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Don't see many goals like this! scores! now leads 3-1
鈥� DaBeautyLeague (@DaBeautyLeague)
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Perhaps the goaltender wasn鈥檛 anticipating Boeser鈥檚 all-out effort in a fun summer league? It鈥檚 a pretty nifty diving play to poke the puck past the goaltender and one-hand it into the net, but that goalie has to be feeling just a little bit embarassed.
Data Rink and Hockey Analysis going dark
Two members of the hockey analytics community were hired by NHL teams this week, which means their sites, which were vital sources for anyone interested in advanced statistics, will be taken down, if they haven鈥檛 already.
Kevin Kan, who put together some gorgeous visualizations and a clean, useful site at datarink.com, has been hired by the Carolina Hurricanes. I had only recently discovered his work and his site, so it鈥檚 tough to see it going dark.
The bigger blow is the hiring of David Johnson by the Calgary Flames. His data site, stats.hockeyanalysis.com, was a site I visited and used almost daily.
The design of stats.hockeyanalysis.com was relatively bare bones, but it was stable, rarely crashed, and made it easy to quickly look up important statistics. Its best feature, and the one that I used most, was a simple and intuitive WOWY (With Or Without You) view that let you easily see how a player performed with and without different linemates.
Johnson had built a more modern interface for his database of statistics at puckalytics.com, which included a vital SuperWOWY feature that allowed you to see the statistics for any combination of players when they were on the ice. I used it regularly and will miss it a great deal.
There are still many analytics sites out there 鈥� puckiq.com and naturalstattrick.com are good places to start and I eagerly anticipate the return of corsica.hockey 鈥� but it鈥檚 always a bittersweet day when such useful sites go dark. It鈥檚 great to see people get hired by NHL teams, but it鈥檚 tough to see their work taken out of the public eye.
Elias Pettersson won鈥檛 be signing with the Canucks
Don鈥檛 be alarmed!
Rick Dhaliwal spoke to Elias Pettersson today and confirmed that he won鈥檛 be signing a contract with the Canucks this year:
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Pettersson on not signing a contract : "I'm not ready for the NHL, a contract is not what I need at this point."
鈥� Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports)
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It makes sense: there鈥檚 no need for Pettersson to sign an NHL contract when he鈥檚 at minimum a full year away from making the Canucks. Though it鈥檚 an extreme long-shot, not signing an NHL contract also makes him eligible for the 2018 Olympics. Like I said, a long-shot.
With Pettersson鈥檚 SHL season starting in mid-September, he has also decided to forego Canucks camp.
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Pettersson says he will not attend main camp, "My season in Sweden starts Sept 19th, the decision was made not to attend camp."
鈥� Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports)
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He also confirmed with Dhaliwal that he wasn鈥檛 鈥渋njured,鈥� but just had some soreness in his hip. We could spend some time parsing the meaning of the word 鈥渋njury鈥� but for now just be relieved that Pettersson is fine.
Michael Del Zotto anticipates a leadership role
The 27-year-old Del Zotto spoke to Sportsnet after a training session about the upcoming season with the Canucks and the role he expects to play.
鈥淧eople that know my personality,鈥� he said, 鈥渒now that I鈥檓 very energetic, and I like to talk, joke around, and have a good time.鈥�
From all the interviews I鈥檝e seen, Del Zotto seems like a fun person to talk to and will hopefully add some fun personality to the Canucks locker room and, perhaps, the videos they produce. I鈥檓 not going to lie: I miss how fun Kevin Bieksa and Keith Ballard were in interviews and videos. Hopefully Del Zotto can bring some of that back. He and Ben Hutton should get along nicely.
