from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

As Travis Green returned to Vancouver for mid-summer coaching meetings this week, the Canucks team for which he is planning the 2019-20 National Hockey League season is significantly different than the one he last coached in April.

General manager Jim Benning has added potential 20-goal scorers J.T. Miller and Micheal Ferland, as well as top-four defenceman Tyler Myers and third-pairing veteran Jordie Benn. And the most impactful newcomer could be 19-year-old defenceman Quinn Hughes, who sparkled in a five-game NHL cameo last spring and has the potential to follow Calder Trophy-winning Canuck centre Elias Pettersson to the NHL awards ceremony next year.

But Green is also facing the uncertainty of restricted free agent Brock Boeser’s stalled contract negotiations. As the 22-year-old winger deals with the grave illness of his father, Duke, home in Minnesota, Boeser and the Canucks are at a standoff, apparently waiting for other key RFAs around the NHL to sign and set the market.

And then there’s the dark cloud surrounding Loui Eriksson, the veteran winger who after 32 goals (and $27 million in compensation) over his first three years as a Canuck said at the world championships in May that he and Green “don’t really get on 100 per cent.”

There appears to be no exit for the Canucks on Eriksson, but will they play next season without him as the team tries to take what Benning and Green call the “next step”?

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