In case you weren't aware, fans of the Vancouver Canucks still feel robbed of the 2011 Stanley Cup championship, which history denotes belongs to the Boston Bruins. In any case, several fans used the club's annual Summer Summit on Tuesday night to voice those feelings.
Canucks Summer Summit reveals Sedin contract extensions on the way, Luongo won’t be a problem
The Vancouver Canucks annual Summer Summit gave fans access to club personal, which resulted in an interesting interview process.
Rich Lam
This was especially true when it came time for NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly to receive questions from the crowd.
In addition to questioning the quality of NHL officials, Canucks fans asked about expansion and the potential of a playoff format that would allow for any two teams to compete for the Stanley Cup. Daly replied to the questions with political answers, stating that officials are told to officiate the same way in the playoffs as they do in the regular season and that the league is focused on stabilizing all 30 of its existing teams. Playoff formatting is a topic often discussed but doesn’t appear to be changing (beyond the alterations this season) anytime soon.
All-in-all, Daly’s segment was fairly interesting given that the crowd asked some intriguing questions.
Later in the night, manager Mike Gillis and newly appointed coach John Tortorella also answered questions from the audience. Gillis was obviously asked about the trade of Cory Scheinder and the head space of Roberto Luongo. Gillis stated that he has spoken with Luongo and that the spent the majority of their time together talking about his twitter feed.
Gillis openly stated that the Canucks “made the choice to go with Roberto.” However, I would venture to interject that the market heavily dictated that “choice” and could make the argument that it’s a stretch to label the decision a choice. Regardless, Gillis made it sound as though Luongo won’t be a problem, at least, in terms of his desire to remain in Vancouver.
The highlight of the night for fans -- at least from my perspective -- likely came when Gillis stated that the Sedin twins would begin negotiating long-term contract extensions when they return to North America later this summer. Both players are entering the final years of their contracts and will be unrestricted next offseason.
According to Gillis, all sides are interested in striking up long-term deals.
Fortunately, the Canucks have a YouTube station and have made the entirety of the 2013 Summer Summit available. It’s two-hours long but there is some quality information in there that I think hockey fans will enjoy hearing. I watched it all the way through, but you could very easily skip ahead and watch the parts that are most interesting to you.
Here’s a breakdown of the interviews for those who don’t want to watch the whole thing:
* Bill Daly interview, 14:25-21:00
* Victor de Bonis interview, 22:00-30:47
* Daly & de Bonis fan question and answer, 34:30-58:43
* Mike Gillis interview, 1:02:15-1:12:00
* John Tortorella interview, 1:12:15-1:23:37
* Gillis and Tortorella fan question and answer, 1:23:50-1:44:48
* Pavel Bure interview/jersey retirement announcement, 1:47:00
Here’s the Summer Summit in its entirety:
More in the NHL:
See More:
