With the invites of Owen Nolan and Todd Fedoruk to training camp, the Vancouver Canucks are trying to address some issues that stopped them from completing a successful road to the Stanley Cup last season. They fell one game short of the coveted prize, but many believe they were lucky to be anywhere close to that with the way their postseason was so up and down.

One reason why Nolan may be there is Ryan Kesler, who underwent hip labral surgery on July 25 and is expected to miss the first few weeks of the season. If and when he returns to form will probably take even longer. At 39 years old, Nolan is hardly a threat to take Kesler’s job. He’ll act more as a placeholder, despite the fact that the two play different positions. Fedoruk will add some grittiness to a team that was a bit too fine.

Nolan will get more face time than Fedoruk as he has the better scoring touch. In 1,200 career games, he has scored 422 goals and added 463 assists. Meanwhile, Fedoruk has only played in 545 games and has 32 goals and 65 points. He does, however, have 1,050 career penalty minutes and has played for six different teams in the last four seasons.

Nolan and Fedoruk will look to add some scoring and toughness to a roster that was both fatigued and lacking last year, despite winning the President’s Trophy and going to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. They played 107 games in total. Nolan’s not a top six forward anymore, but he can certainly add some much depth to a team that gets awfully thin beyond Kesler and the Sedin twins. Fedoruk, should he make the roster, will just eat up a few minutes per night as resident goon.