Prospective Look at Vancouver

Another summer of change is in the horizon for the Canucks, as the new GM Mike Gillis was named last week, upon the departure of former GM Dave Nonis. Gillis starts with the back-end all but sured up for next season, which is a huge advantage to any other new GM that takes a job this summer. Gillis will start with plenty of cap space and 14 of the team's regular players already signed on for the 2008/09 season, not to mention a 10th overall draft pick in the Entry Draft.

Looking at the core to begin with, the seven regular forwards that are signed on all played a big role with the team this past season and will likely have more responsibility going into next season. But let's not forget, with the alleged cap space the Canucks are going to play with, the decision to cut loose or keep Markus Naslund, Brendan Morrison and Aaron Miller around for another year will be hotly debated.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Henrik Sedin	Sami Salo	Roberto Luongo
Daniel Sedin	Mattias Ohlund
Ryan Kesler	Alexander Edler
Taylor Pyatt	Willie Mitchell
Alexandre Burrows	Kevin Bieksa
Mason Raymond	Lukas Krajicek
Matt Pettinger

The team as it stands has 14 players signed on for next season at $35.5 million and there could be the inclusion of a couple more young players who may get more of a regular shift with the big club next season, like Cory Schneider, Luc Bourdon, Jason Jaffray, Michael Grabner or Jannik Hansen. Those players could certainly jump into the Canucks club at a reasonable entry-level cost and open the door for a bigger name forward to come in and make an immediate impact as well.

Since the team is pretty much sewn up when it comes to the back end of the team, the forwards will be a big focus in the off-season and having the 10th pick in the Entry Draft could very well help that sitation as well. There won't be much need for the team to trade up to make any big splash in the Draft, but you could be assured that they'll target players like Zach Boychuk, Colin Wilson or Mikkel Boedker in and around the 10th spot. All three are very skilled forwards that have the possibility of making the jump, if necessary.