Canucks play Jake - get results - 4-3-2

Well, well, well, Jake Virtanen has played with Bo Horvat and what do you know? Horvat has magically found the net !! But the $20 million in dead cap space is going to haunt the Canucks.

Virtanen has been just tremendous drawing penalty after penalty, fighting, scoring, assisting, hitting - just like you'd think the most talented player on the Vancouver Canucks would - if given a chance!

We'll never know if someone in the GM's office finally had a word with coach Travis Green and told him to knock it off when it comes to his misuse and abuse of the talented No. 6 overall pick from Abottsford or if Green finally realized the team stunk but whatever it was - it's paying off, and of course it would.

Virtanen is just a terrific talent. Great vision, terrific skating ability, great hockey IQ.

Next the team has to either fire PP coach Newel Brown or tell him Virtanen is on the top PP unit and that's that.

The Canucks are now 4 wins 3 losses and 2 ties. Not terrific but not bad. Unfortunately the days of playing Patsies are over.

Next up the Washington Capitals this Friday who are playing well. The Canucks will play a good team playing well for the first time this year. And now we'll see where they actually stand.

It's very difficult to evaluate the Canucks at this point since they haven't played a good team playing well yet to get a read on them. The beginning of the season is often strewn with fits and starts from good teams playing badly, as we saw in St. Louis where the Canucks tied.

The goaltending from the Canucks has been absolutely tremendous and it is in fact the best in the NHL at this point.

It has covered massive mistakes by this team. In Detroit Markstrom stopped 3 clear cut breakways - if even one had gone in there would have been a different story in Detroit where the Canucks earned their 4th win of the season.

It was very nice to see Detroit actually resemble an NHL team this team as opposed to last week where they certainly did not look like an NHL team.

But if Virtanen can get up to 20 minutes per night the team is going to do well.

Elias Petterssen continues to struggle. Petterssen appears to have lost a step over the summer as it often happens when young players try to put on weight.

It would be better if Petterssen played at 160 pounds and the Canucks limited his ice time and games played. Petterssen may be a player that only plays 65 games a year and they spot him in and out of the lineup and sit him for back-to-back games. It's why scouts were not sold on him at the NHL draft and why he was projected to go in the 12-15 spot, not the 5th spot where Vancouver took him.

The player taken behind Petterssen at the No. 6 spot in that draft, Cody Glass, is having a very good year in Las Vegas playing for the Golden Knights. He's bigger, stronger, a natural center and playing on a good team.

Quinton Hughes continues to make massive defensive mistakes and there's no hiding the fact teams are deliberately putting the puck in his corner and going after him. Or they are skating right at him and daring him to try to push them off the puck. As the season continues, and Hughes' size becomes an issue, it probably will continue to get worse. As I've said previously, the NHL is probably not the right place for him to be at this point in his career.

But so far the goaltending from Markstrom and Thatcher Demko has been stirling and if it holds they'll continue to do well for no other reason.

But this brings up another issue for Vancouver.
One of their goalies will have to be traded at the trade deadline. They can't wait like they have done in the past and get nothing in return for assets.

Unfortunately with $20 million in dead cap space - they can't re-sign Markstrom.

DEAD CAP SPACE

Erikkson $6 million
Luongo $3 million
Beagle $3 million
Ferland $3.5 million
Sutter $4 million

Unfortunately because the drafting by GM Jim Benning has been so bad - they have felt the need to torpedo their team on July 1st (UFA Day) or by re-signing Sutter. They have $20 million in cap space tied up in players that should have been drafted in the 2nd to 7th rounds.

The VOID of the 2nd to 7th rounds of the draft by this regime has torpedoed any way forward for this group of players.

It will have to be dismantled starting this Trade Deadline Day or they'll be in more of a cap hell.