Canucks Farm Update

After a slow start for Cody Hodgson on the Manitoba Mooose, he now has 6 goals in 13 games, and 4 goals in his last three games. The kid is really starting to light the lamp. Once he has proven that he can dominate at the AHL level, the canucks will call him up. Vigneault is not interested in calling Hodgson up to play on the Canucks third line. There are other players on the moose that would fit that role better. Vigneault only wants to see hodgson on the top two lines. when he's good enough to play that role is when he will be called up. Given that he's a center, and canucks already have about 15 million tied up in there top three center positions (kesler, h. sedin and malholtra) it is likely that when hodgson is ready to play for the canucks he will play on the wing. A line of Kesler, Raymond and Hodgson would be ideal in my mind.

Other noteable farmhands for the Canucks are Jeff Teambellini who has 2 goals in three games. Watch this kid light it up. He will likely be on the canucks roster next year in place of Torres or Hansen. This kid was around the same place in the 04 draft as kesler (20 seomthing overall).

The other good farmhand is Sergei Shirokov. This Russian Sniper is tied with hodgson for the team lead in goals, however shirokov has a better plus/minus. Shirokov played 6 awful games for the canucks last year, however he is looking to have a better stint his second time around. If any of the Canucks top 9 forwards go down I say that it will be Shirokov that gets the call up, just because its the last year of his contract and the Nucks want to give him a chance before he heads back to the KHL.

Also noteable is that the Leafs have called up Nazim Kadri. This is a textbook example of how you don't want to use your young players. the Leafs have lost ten of their past eleven games. They are looking for something... anything hat can right the course of their ship. Nobody is badly injured on forward position on the leafs, burke is just hoping that Kadri can turn this season around. That is way too much pressure on a guy that hasnt played a regular season game yet. Shame on Brian Burke for putting kadri in this position. He hasn't even played twenty games at the AHL level and now he's being called on to be a superstar at the NHL level. Failure guaranteed!

_Hark