Music: {allcanada} CANUCKS' HANSEN EYES DANISH OLYMPIC TEAM

Monday, September 24, 2012

{allcanada} CANUCKS' HANSEN EYES DANISH OLYMPIC TEAM

The Winnipeg Free Press points out Canucks winger Jannik Hansen's wife is from Winnipeg so the former Manitoba Moose forward said he's here skating at the MTS Iceplex for the time being.

"I don't think I'll be heading to Vancouver any time soon," Hansen said. "The skates here are good enough as they are right now.

"There are enough guys for a quality skate so I don't see the need. But if we drop down to a handful of guys and no goalies, then there's no reason to be here."

One of the options for the 26-year-old from Denmark, a great ninth-round find by Vancouver and developed in Winnipeg, will be to go to play in Europe, as Jets defenceman Toby Enstrom decided to do. Hansen said it's still a bit early for that.

"We're a week into it," Hansen said. "They haven't sat down since the lockout (started) so we don't really know where it stands right now. It would be nice to get some sort of clarification on whether this will be a long-term thing or it's going to be something that can be sorted out in a respectable amount of time.

"It will weigh on my decision. It would be very convenient to go home, stay with my parents, eat some home cooking and whatnot. I haven't had that opportunity in eight years, so that would be a nice part. Again, the league is probably not the best level where I could better myself, but I'll have to weight that out myself."

One carrot for Hansen if the lockout drags on is to compete on the Danish national team when it tries to qualify for the Olympics in February.

"It would be a tremendous opportunity," he said