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Linden, like everyone with the Canucks, is dealing with the fallout of Tryamkin’s fateful decision and its wider implications. It will impact the expansion draft and its aftermath. It will impact their draft-day decisions.

More to the point, it will have a huge impact on next year’s lineup — are you ready Olli Juolevi? — and beyond.

But it’s also a reflection on the organization that Tryamkin would chose Yekaterinburg Automobilist over the Canucks and the presumption is the administration alienated their prize prospect. Linden, of course, is aware of that perception, but he paints a different picture of Tryamkin’s relationship with the Canucks, a picture of someone who’d bought in and was fitting in.

“Of course people look to place blame,” Linden said. “Unfortunately that’s how people operate. I think we did a really good job of integrating him to our team.

“The way he bought in to the training and the nutrition was so impressive. He transformed his body this year.”

Photo by Mark van Manen / PNG

Which is interesting because this depiction doesn’t square with other accounts of Tryamkin’s time in Vancouver. It’s been reported the big blue-liner bristled when he wasn’t in the lineup at the start of the season, and he was unhappy with his ice time throughout the year. Throw in a dispute with the coaching staff and it seems Tryamkin had a sense of entitlement which was out of proportion for a 22-year-old rookie.

But Linden reports he bought into the team’s conditioning regimen fully and completely, and reduced his body fat from 15 per cent to 10 per cent during the season. Along the way he set up a second home in the Canucks’ gym while developing a close relationship with strength and conditioning coaches Roger Takahashi and Bryan Marshall.