Miller’s new baby, Boudreau’s feeling positive, no news on Horvat’s status

I try not to make every blog about J.T. Miller. But he’s earned top billing today, with the announcement of the arrival of his third child.

First off: congratulations to J.T. and Natalie.

Secondly, this is important news, because Bruce Boudreau told Global TV earlier this week that the Miller clan would be on their way to Vancouver shortly after the new baby was born.

“I talked to him last week and he’s very excited about (returning to the team),” Boudreau said in a story that posted on Wednesday. “I think his wife is giving birth either today or tomorrow. Once that’s over, he’s getting over here and he can’t wait to start the season (as well).”

When asked if he was expecting to have Miller on his opening-night roster, the always-canded Boudreau answered, “Of course! I mean, I don’t anticipate him going anywhere.”

The Zoom interview was timed to coincide with the Canucks’ on-sale date for single-game tickets for the upcoming season, so of course the focus was on the positivity that Boudreau brought to the club last season and his hope that the good vibes will keep on rolling.

Asked who he expects to make a difference for the team this season, he cited the new guys, Ilya Mikheyev and Andrei Kuzmenko.

“The conversations we’ve had and the video we’ve seen — he’s a really skilled player,” Boudreau said. “It’s hoped that he can make it go from the KHL to the NHL. We don’t know yet but if it does, and I think we got a real secret weapon.”

After seeing Vasily Podkolzin on the ice this week, Boudreau says the sophomore is “bigger and stronger and he’s more excited,” and also threw some love to the goalies who have been working with Ian Clark out at the Scotia Barn.

Boudreau says many of the other Canucks will be landing in town just after Labour Day.

“They want to get in here early and work out as a team, which is always a really good sign,” he said. “That makes coaches excited about doing their work, so we can’t wait.”

Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat are two Canucks who have been posting regularly on social media from their offseason home bases, so they could be making their way back to town soon. Patrick Johnston from The Province also mentioned that Alex Chiasson and his partner have been living in Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s Kitsilano home this summer as he trains and tries to chase down a new deal — whether that’s in Vancouver or elsewhere.

I had some quotes from Chiasson in the last blog, but Johnston has more:

“Honestly, I’ve always wanted to play here,” said Chiasson about his decision to stick around despite his UFA status. “I heard summers were great. We have kind of moved around quite a bit in the last couple of years. So we just decided to stay and it’s probably one of the nicest cities I’ve played or lived in in my career for sure,” he said.

As for the Canucks: “This was a special year,” he said, “I played here for one year and hopefully some stuff can work out. If not, I only have good things to say about the team, the group, the head coach. They’re in great hands and hence why I wanted to come back.”

And while Miller’s contract status is getting all the attention, Johnston provides an update/non-update on Horvat, who’s also one year away from unrestricted free agency and turns 28 next April.

“(Horvat’s) agent, Pat Morris, didn’t respond this week to a query about the state of contract talks between the team and their 2013 first-round pick,” Johnston wrote. “The Canucks have been similarly mum on the subject.”

To wrap up today as we head into the long weekend — you may have seen my announcement on Twitter on Thursday that I’m signing on with The Hockey News as a Features Writer for this season.

If you’ve been reading here for awhile, you may remember that I’ve been doing freelance content for the magazine since 2016, anchored by my annual stories on the World Championship.

In this new gig, I’ll be contributing feature stories to the magazine on a more regular basis, and also contributing regularly to the website.

I’m staying in Vancouver, so there should be lots of Canucks content and other Western Conference coverage. I’ll also be looking to coverage Abbotsford and the AHL and even some junior hockey — which should be a lot of fun, with the Memorial Cup set to land in Kamloops next spring.

My web content is set to start rolling out this weekend, and I’ve been working on some stories which will be appearing in the magazine very soon.

As a rule, magazine content doesn’t get republished to the website, so you’ll need to go old-school and subscribe if you’d like to read my features.

Here’s the link:

You can also choose a free past issue when you subscribe. My recommendation is the 2022 Champions issue, which contains lots of great stuff about last spring’s Stanley Cup run as well as my chat with Valtteri Filppula after he captained Finland to gold at both the Olympics and the World Championship to earn membership in the Triple Gold Club — a rare feat these days, with NHL players having missed out on the last two Olympics.

I’m super-excited about this opportunity: looking forward to telling more stories, and honoured to be working with a brand that’s such a huge part of hockey history.

And nothing will be changing here. Thank you for sticking around and keeping the conversations lively and entertaining since I came on board eight (!) years ago.

Looking forward to the year ahead!