The potential future of the Vancouver Canucks — including 2015 first-round draft pick Brock Boeser — will be on display Monday through Wednesday at the NHL club’s development/rookie camp for prospects at the new Shawnigan Lake School rink. The $8-million sprung structure opened in February.
Even though 18 of the 29 players invited to report are either Canucks draft selections or have been signed, perhaps only a couple will end up making an impact on the big club in their careers. This is the process of chasing that elusive dream.
Some have already begun their pro careers, such as centre Curtis Valk, who played last season in the ECHL for the Kalamazoo Wings.
There are 12 forwards, 12 blue-liners and five goaltenders among the invitees with 19 Canadians, eight Americans and three Europeans.
The Canucks prospect most closely watched will be winger Jake Virtanen from Abbotsford, a six-foot-one forward with a physical edge and complete skill-set, who was selected sixth overall by the home-province Canucks in the 2014 NHL draft out of the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League.
Virtanen will be among a group of players at the camp who are rivals in the WHL of the Victoria Royals. They include defencemen Tate Olson of the Prince George Cougars, Anton Cederholm of the Portland Winter Hawks, Ashton Sautner of the Edmonton Oil Kings and Mackenzie Stewart of the Prince Albert Raiders, goaltender Jackson Whistle of the Kelowna Rockets and forward Reid Gardiner of Prince Albert.
The U.S. collegiate NCAA will be represented by defencemen Robert Hamilton from the University of Vermont Catamounts, Ben Hutton of the Maine Black Bears, Matthew Caito from Miami of Ohio and forwards John Stevens from Northeastern and Matthew Lane of Boston University.
The USHL continues to trend as a rising junior league and will be represented at Shawnigan Lake in a big way, by forward Boeser from the Waterloo Black Hawks and also by forward Adam Gaudette from the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.
Some of the Canucks most significant players historically — from Pavel Bure to Markus Naslund to the Sedin twins — have come from overseas and there is a healthy dose of Europeans skating at Shawnigan Lake School led by blueliner Cederholm from Sweden and forwards Lukas Jasek from the Czech Republic and Dmitry Zhukenov of Russia.
A consequential player of note in camp will be centre Jared McCann. The Canucks had two first-round draft selections in 2014, due to a trade with the Anaheim Ducks.
After selecting Virtanen sixth overall, Vancouver went for McCann with the 24th overall pick out of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League.
Another OHL player of interest in Shawnignan Lake will be defenceman Jordan Subban of the Belleville Bulls, brother of Montreal Canadiens blueliner P.K. Subban, who was taken by Vancouver in the fourth round of the 2013 NHL draft.
It seems everybody wants on the Ben Bishop bandwagon. The most glaringly obvious player on the Shawnigan Lake ice sheet will be Minnesota-native and six-foot-nine goaltender John McLean, a 25-year-old project out of NCAA Div. III Gustavus Adolphus College, who has three games of pro in the Southern League with the Pensacola Ice Flyers.
On-ice sessions are open to the public.
The first are Monday from 9:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, the players go from 10 to 11 a.m. followed by the second session at 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and a three-on-three tournament beginning at 5:10 p.m.
The development camp concludes Wednesday with blades touching ice from 8:30 to 11 a.m.
Players from the development camp who warrant it, will be invited to the Canucks main training camp Sept 17-20 to be held for the first time in Prince George.
The Canucks will then fly down to the Island to open the pre-season in the nationally-televised Kraft Hockeyville game Sept. 21 against the San Jose Sharks at the Q Centre in Colwood.
