[MR_BIGGS]

What's Up With Hodgson? Nobody Really Knows

“He just wasn’t ready. We really believe this young man has a tremendous amount of upside but, at the end of the day, he didn’t show any signs that he was ready to play at this level. After analyzing it and talking about it, we felt the best thing for him was to go back to junior and his team.”

Those were the words of Canucks coach Alain Vigneault late last September after the club decided to send Cody Hodgson back to Brampton of the OHL following the top prospect's less-than-impressive performance in the pre-season.

“I think Cody is a very young man who hasn’t had a lot of disappointments throughout his life. He’s probably having as tough time, personally, dealing with this one and trying to find a reason why it happened. We’ve all had times where we’ve encountered disappointment and tried to roll the [blame] in a different direction. We’ve all been through those things. Cody will learn from this.”

That was Vigneault a couple of days later, suggesting that Hodgson was using his bad back as an excuse for the demotion. The Canucks had previously claimed he was fit to play the pre-season. But Hodgson got a second opinion and subsequently missed most of last season rehabbing his back.

From an optics standpoint, it didn't look good.

Predictably, rumours of a rift between Hodgson and the Canucks grew, though in February that was denied by Vancouver GM Mike Gillis.

Hodgson, meanwhile, wasn't willing to go into detail about it:

Asked if he'd spoken to Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault about the latter's suggestion that Hodgson might be using his injury as an excuse for his demotion to junior, he said: “No. I'm not looking back now. The only thing I'm concerned with is my play and getting better.”

And ever since, Canucks fans have been dying to know what's up with Hodgson. Does he have a problem with the coach and/or management? Is his back totally screwed or what? Because it still wasn't 100 percent in April when it was reported he wouldn't be suiting up for the Manitoba Moose in the AHL playoffs.

So far, all anyone's been able to do is speculate, because, not surprisingly, nobody's talking. Or if they are talking, they're not saying anything meaningful.

All of which brings us to the news that Hodgson was absent from today's skate at Rogers Arena:

But perhaps the most puzzling absence was prospect Cody Hodgson, who's apparently still working in Toronto with former NHL player and fitness guru Gary Roberts while players such as Jeff Tambellini, Victor Oreskovich and prospect Jordan Schroeder are already here preparing to fight for a Canucks job.

Canucks assistant GM Laurence Gilman said Hodgson – the Canucks' first round pick (10th overall) in 2008 – needs to finish his program with Roberts before heading to Vancouver.

Hodgson suffered a bulging disc in his back in the summer of 2009, which caused him to struggle in last year's preseason with the Canucks and subsequently forced him to miss the first four months of his junior season in Brampton.

“He's working on core training and he's got a regime that he needs to finish,” said Gilman.

Gilman said Hodgson is expected to be at the prospects physicals at Rogers Arena on Friday, but it's uncertain if the 20-year-old centre will play in the prospects tournament in Penticton.

“'For any player, we want to make sure he's fit to play,” said Gilman. “We haven't had a chance to conduct a (recent) medical evaluation (on Hodgson).”

So again Canucks fans are left wondering, what's up with Hodgson?

http://communities.canada.com/thepro...lly-knows.aspx