Last month, the Hockey Hall of Fame unveiled its class of 2024, which consisted of five players — three in the male player category, two in the female player category — and two builders. Two of the male players, Pavel Datsyuk and Shea Weber, went in during their first year of eligibility. Jeremy Roenick had been eligible since 2012, or three years after he played his last official game as a professional with the 2008-09 San Jose Sharks. That’s a distinction that’s unique to the HHOF, because it takes into account players who continue to play professionally around the world, even after their NHL careers conclude.

So, for example, Datsyuk played five years in Russia after leaving the Detroit Red Wings following the 2015-16 season, which is why he wasn’t eligible for selection until this year. Jaromir Jagr, the NHL’s second all-time leading scorer, hasn’t played a game in the NHL since 2017-18, but he continues to play a handful of games every year for Kladno, the team he owns in Czechia. If Jagr finally stops playing this year, he’ll become eligible in 2027 — and he’ll be about as sure a thing as there is to a guaranteed first-ballot inductee.

That’s the thing about Hall of Fame debates. They generally aren’t too controversial at the top end.

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Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luke Schenn is back in Vancouver with his family, awaiting a trade.

The popular, reliable, physical depth defender will be dealt, most likely in short order, and probably for something more significant than a mid-round pick.

Although the particulars of Schenn’s situation are complicated given that Schenn’s wife Jeska is due to give birth to the couple’s second child on trade deadline day itself, selling a veteran player on an expiring deal at the trade deadline is ordinary course stuff for a team near the bottom of the NHL standings. The stakes of this forthcoming deal feel anything but ordinary for the Canucks though.

That’s largely because Schenn represents the last traditional bullet in the Canucks’ chamber of assets in the leadup to the 2023 NHL trade deadline.

You can forget the J.T. Miller speculation, that’s almost certainly fantasy hockey stuff.

You might as well give up on the notion of the club moving on from Tyler Myers in the next eight days.

And don’t get too excited about the club’s efforts to move Brock Boeser in-season, although it’s clear that they’re trying.

Brock Boeser is on the trade block and the Burnsville, Minn., native would love to return home and play for the Wild.

Agent Ben Hankinson, with permission from…

Bruce Boudreau has been around long enough to know what was coming.

When the outside noise was that loud, when insiders were basically announcing that Rick Tocchet was going to be the incoming Canucks coach, when they were even naming Tocchet’s starting date before the outgoing coach had been fired, Boudreau knew it was more than likely true.

That’s why Boudreau coached Saturday’s Canucks game against the Oilers like it would be his last. That’s why he welled up after the morning skate the day before. That’s why he looked so beaten down in the third period and so stressed on that coach’s challenge that ultimately overturned an Oilers goal. That’s why he stayed on the bench after the final horn and looked around Rogers Arena with tears in his eyes, saluting the fans who were saluting him.

And that’s why he booked a flight home for Monday night with his wife of 28 years, Crystal, a week and a half ago.

As part of his contract with the Canucks, Boudreau and his family members receive 10 free plane tickets to and from their home in Hershey, Pa. As the rumblings grew, the Boudreaus booked one-way tickets home. After packing up every morsel of their downtown Vancouver condo the past few days, Bruce and Crystal will board a red-eye for Seattle with a connection to…

VANCOUVER—The image of Bruce Boudreau surveying the crowd on Saturday night, tears on his face, clapping and waving in deep appreciation for Vancouver Canucks fans after another home loss will resonate in this city long after the successful veteran head coach is fired in the coming days.

It was deeply touching in the moment, but it’s now an ignominious piece of Canucks franchise history.

Against a superior opponent Saturday night, Boudreau’s players emptied the tank to try and rally for him. They fell short.

And as the game ended, Boudreau stood on the bench, tears in his eyes and contemplated his hockey mortality.

He searched out his wife in the crowd and held back tears as the fans serenaded him appreciatively one final time: “Bruce There It Is!”

“You never know if it’s the end,” Boudreau said of the moment. He spoke through tears. He stopped frequently to gather himself.

“When you’ve been in it for almost 50 years, the majority of your life, and if it’s the end, I had to stay out there and look at the crowd and say, ‘Remember this moment’…”

Boudreau has been around a while. He’s been fired from NHL jobs before — on three previous occasions in fact. This was different, however, in part because he’s 68 years old now and in part because this is a…