The Vancouver Sun
May 13, 1999
By Iain MacIntyre

Hello Bryan Allen. Goodbye Adrian Aucoin?

To help themselves at forward, the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday signed another defenceman.

Allen, the fourth player chosen in last June's National Hockey League entry draft, agreed to a three-year contract that will pay him the rookie maximum of $975,000 US next season.

But the 18-year-old blueliner's most immediate impact likely will be felt at forward, as Canuck general manager Brian Burke said Allen gives Vancouver the depth to trade a defenceman for some badly needed offensive help.

Although Burke refused to name trade candidates, Aucoin and perhaps Bryan McCabe are the defencemen most likely to be dealt, given their market value and the Canucks' extreme reluctance to part with either Ed Jovanovski or Mattias Ohlund.

"A non-playoff team doesn't have the luxury of having too many untouchables,'' Burke said. "But clearly it's easier to contemplate moving some of them than others.

"This definitely changes the equation in terms of my willingness to move a defenceman. There's a possibility to turn one of our defencemen into a quality forward. I think we have a lot more of a challenge up front; we don't have enough skill.''

Only four teams scored fewer goals this season than the Canucks, whose 192 were easily an all-time low for a franchise that entered the NHL in 1970.

Contrasting their shortage of quality forwards, the Canucks have one of the deepest defences in the league. Ohlund, 22, is considered a franchise cornerstone despite his poor sophomore season and Jovanovski, 22, was the centrepiece in Burke's much-debated January trade of Pavel Bure.

Since neither veteran Murray Baron nor sixth defenceman Jason Strudwick would fetch a scorer in return, Burke will be dangling either McCabe or Aucoin in trade talks.

McCabe, a robust all-around defenceman, became a favourite of coach Marc Crawford late in the season and currently is playing for Team Canada at the world championship in Norway. Aucoin led all NHL defencemen with 23 regular-season goals, which also was a Canuck record. Aucoin and Jovanovski become restricted free agents on July 1.

"Obviously, at the back end we've got more youth and McCabe, Olie and Jovo are all going to be great players,'' Aucoin, 25, said from his off-season home in Ottawa. ``And besides someone like Markus Naslund, there weren't too many guys up front who had the year they would have liked. But honestly, I don't want to get traded. I like Vancouver and I always have. It would be a blow.''

About the surest thing, barring injury, is that Allen will be somewhere in the lineup next season.

On the strength of one highly-impressive exhibition game, Allen was promised by the Canucks last fall that he would spend the season in Vancouver if he signed. But a dispute over the payment structure for bonuses saw the 6'5'', 210-pound Allen return for another season of junior hockey with the Ontario League's Oshawa Generals.

"It was a little hard,'' Allen said of leaving the Canucks last September. "But I was totally happy with the year I had in Oshawa. We went to the third round of the playoffs. It's another year under my belt. My body got stronger and even grew a little bit.''

"The overriding factor is he's intelligent,'' Crawford said. "Hopefully that intelligence will translate from league to league. We know he's going to have some bumps along the way; it wouldn't be normal if he didn't. He looks like he's ready to make the jump.''

Allen had 25 points and 107 penalty minutes in 54 league and playoff games for Oshawa. But his season was delayed by a shoulder injury suffered in his second pre-season game with the Canucks, then interrupted in January by a sore knee aggravated at the world junior tournament.

"He's agile; he's got good mobility for a big man,'' Burke said. "His best attributes in his own end are he's mean in front of the net and he moves the puck extremely well. People won't see him go end to end, but he moves the puck well.''

Allen said he will spend the next several weeks at home in Glenburnie, Ont., working with personal trainer Bob Tyson before returning to Vancouver sometime during the summer. He turns 19 on Aug. 21.

"Definitely there's going to be pressure,'' he said. "Only being 19, there shouldn't be too much expected. But I'm probably my toughest critic. I'Ll put more pressure on me than anyone.''

Allen said the Canucks made "significant'' changes to their offer from last fall. Allen wanted a bonus structure that would have paid off in six categories if he achieved the bonus level in any two of them. The Canucks wanted to treat each bonus independently.

"We tried to find a way to reschedule it and get a deal done,'' Canuck negotiator Dave Nonis said. "We chipped away at it slowly.''



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