Give Kesler the C, Luongo doesn’t deserve it

By Matthew Steinbach

Roberto Luongo is not the captain of the
Canucks.

Shocking? No, not really. The truth
about Luongo is that he is a great goalie,
probably even the best, but he’s not a leader.

Luongo constantly avoids the press
and says very little to them when he does
talk them. Not exactly the definition of
leadership. I mean, it’s great that he wants
to win, but doesn’t everyone else? And the
thing that really pisses me off is the fact
that he accepted the captaincy yet has said
he will only stay with the team if he thinks
they can win the cup. That’s just awful team
spirit. A captain sticks with his team through
the best and worst of times, not just when
the Canucks have a shot at the cup. Luongo
is no leader.

The true captain of this Canucks squad
though seems to have finally emerged in the
form of Ryan Kesler. He can deal with the
press, even though he is considered a man of
few words, and he doesn’t take all the credit

[= said it before and I will say it again,

for his good games, but states that “we did
this” and “we did that.” He talks about all
the good things the team has done together.
It’s not about how he doesn’t want to lose,
but how he wants the team to do well
together. That’s leadership. It’s selflessness;
it’s about caring for your teammates, which
he clearly shows with all the respect he
gives them. Every opportunity that arises he
ensures that they get the credit for a job well
done.

It’s time that the Canucks finally had
a real leader, someone who cares about the
team more than just about winning because
we might not. It’s a fact of life for a Canucks
fan every year. But if we have a solid team
committed to each other we can go far, and
maybe even make another run like we did in
°04. In ‘94 we didn’t have a superstar goalie
let alone a superstar captain we just had a
hardworking team that clicked well together
and the captain was the person that made
that happen through his selflessness, and his
respect for his fellow teammates. We could
see that again if the Canucks appointed the
true leader of this squad to the captaincy.

 

 

 

King of L.A. could have been a Canuck

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

indsight is 20/20, and no where is that more
Heres then when looking back at previous
NHL entry drafts. One that particularly stands
out though is 2005, when the Los Angeles Kings used
the 11" overall selection to draft Slovenian center
Anze Kopitar.
The Vancouver Canucks, as you may recall,
had possession of the 10" overall pick. At the time,
Kopitar was a highly skilled offensive dynamo, a
wizard with the puck who was playing admirably at
age 17 against men in the Swedish Elite League.
The Canucks, under the administration of former
GM Dave Nonis, opted to pass on Kopitar and instead

_ select defenseman Luc Bourdon.

Bourdon passed away in a tragic motorcycle
accident in May of last year, but even before that, it
would be tough to argue that he was a prospect on

- the same level as Kopitar. Bourdon was a talented but

inconsistent offensive defenseman who was splitting
time between Vancouver and their AHL affiliate in
Manitoba.

Meanwhile, Kopitar made the Kings as an 18-
year-old directly out of training camp and has never
looked back. He’s never played a game in the minors;
he scored 20 goals as a rookie and 32 last season. This

i year, he’s been a key part of the Kings’ surprising

resurgence in the standings with a solid 58 points in
66 games.

Recently, Los Angeles GM Dean Lombardi
locked him into a mammoth seven-year, $47.6-
million contract extension that kicks in next year and
will keep Kopitar a King until at least 2016. It pays
him an average of $6.8 million per season and while
Lombardi may have overpaid a bit, it could prove to

be a worthwhile investment into the future.

The contrast between L.A. and Vancouver in
terms of player development stretches far beyond
just Kopitar. While the Kings have been stocking
the cupboard with prized prospects like 2008 second
overall pick Drew Doughty, current 23-year-old
captain Dustin Brown, former third overall pick Jack
Johnson, former Chilliwack Bruins sniper Oscar
Moller and a pair of young star goalies in Jonathan
Quick and Jonathan Bernier, the Canucks have, at
best, three legitimate prospects.

High-end clubs usually have six to eight
prospective players in the system or projected
future leaders on their current roster, but scouting
development, two areas Vancouver has sorely lacked
in for pretty much the team’s entire existence.
Vancouver has three legitimate prospects while Los
Angeles has ten, and that’s not counting Dustin Brown
and Alexander Frolov, two L.A. stars drafted and
developed in-house who are among the best young
players in the league.

Now, Vancouver has routinely finished in the
middle of the standings, which has resulted in mid-
level draft picks, unlike the Kings, who have been
dreadful for years and are only now beginning to
cash in on all of those selections that playing so
poorly yielded. But still, the fact remains that when
the Canucks make a genuinely good pick in the draft,
like Ryan Kesler or Kevin Bieksa, it’s an aberration.
In 2007, Vancouver passed on both David Perron and
Oscar Moller, both of whom are now in the NHL, to
grab Patrick White 25" overall. White has been toiling
away for the University of Minnesota for two years
now and hasn’t been able to get past their fourth line.
He has just 13 goals in 78 total games played with the
Gophers.

15