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Canucks prospect Cody Hodgson to miss rookie camp, creates fan uproar

Cody Hodgson, Jay Bouwmeester

Vancouver Canucks’ Cody Hodgson, right, is knocked to the ice by Calgary Flames’ Jay Bouwmeester during second-period NHL preseason hockey game action in Calgary, Alberta, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Jeff McIntosh)

AP

Canucks prospect Cody Hodgson is a player many within the organization and in the stands are eager to see blossom into the next superstar forward in Vancouver. Last year, Hodgson appeared he’d be ready to make the leap to the NHL as a 20 year-old. Instead, he was sent back to the OHL’s Brampton Battalion causing Canucks fans to get impatient with Hodgson’s development.

As it turns out, Hodgson suffered a torn muscle injury in his back last year that slowed him down and caused him to miss most of last season and is now causing him to miss rookie camp. Vancouver fans are up in arms about things and thankfully Jason Botchford is here to throw water on the fire.

And here is where Cody Hodgson is preparing to try and snag a plum forward spot in the Canucks top nine forward group made available because of an injury to Alex Burrows.

You see, it’s with that in mind that assistant GM Laurence Gilman first hinted back on Sept. 1 that Hodgson would be kept out of the prospect’s tournament.

“We just want to make sure we give him the best chance to come in and make an impact,” Laurence Gilman told The Province. “We haven’t decided yet whether he’ll play and we’ll make that decision at little closer to the tournament.”

So, if you’re plan is to give a player the best chance possible to make the team and that player has an injury which has lingered for 14 months, would it make sense for him to play five games against first-year pros?

Clearly having Hodgson be totally healthy before getting back on the ice is the most important thing and making sure the fans put the pitchforks and torches down is secondary. We can’t help but wonder how fun of a time this would be to have Canucks GM Mike Gillis on Twitter to answer to/deal with the crazed outrage from members of the West Coast Branch of Tinfoil Haberdashery.