- While Vancouver Canucks winger Brock Boeser could be one of the more talented wingers on the trade market over the next month or so, he could be in for a bit of a wait until it’s determined whether or not he’s dealt. On 32 Thoughts, Friedman reported that Boeser may be widely seen as a possible backup plan for teams that fail in their pursuit of San Jose Sharks forward Timo Meier. As a result, his status in terms of a trade could be stuck in a “holding pattern” until there is more clarity in Meier’s situation.
Canucks Rumors
Maple Leafs Reportedly Interested In Tyler Myers
- Pagnotta also reports that the Vancouver Canucks “have been engaged in trade talks with the Toronto Maple Leafs” regarding veteran defenseman Tyler Myers. While it might be quite the challenge to find a way to make the cap hit fit into the Maple Leafs’ current structure, Pagnotta did note that Toronto is not part of Myers’ no-trade protection, eliminating that potential barrier to a deal. While most (including PHR) have concluded that the Maple Leafs’ biggest needs for the deadline lie up front, it seems GM Kyle Dubas could be targeting help for his back end as well.
Studnicka (Illness) Sent Home From Road Trip
- The Canucks have sent Jack Studnicka back to Vancouver and the forward won’t play on the rest of their road trip, relays Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre (Twitter link). The 23-year-old is dealing with a non-COVID illness that is slowly improving. Studnicka was acquired from Boston early this season and has four goals and two assists in 30 games with Vancouver so far.
Boston Bruins Linked To Luke Schenn
No matter the scale, the Boston Bruins intend to add to a formidable group of defensemen. The Fourth Period reported today that Boston has “explored the price tag” on Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luke Schenn, and The Nation Network’s Nick Alberga called them a “leading contender” to acquire Schenn if the Canucks decide to trade him, along with the Calgary Flames.
While Schenn may not have the big-name aura of Jakob Chychrun or even Vladislav Gavrikov, it would be a more pragmatic acquisition for Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. The Bruins are at the tail end of their contention window, and acquiring Schenn would come with a lower acquisition cost. It allows them to fortify an already strong defense while maintaining some core pieces for the team’s future, such as Fabian Lysell.
Schenn’s contract also makes it a more palatable trade for Boston. The team currently has $3.25MM in trade deadline cap space, per CapFriendly, but that’s with Jake DeBrusk and his $4MM cap hit on long-term injured reserve. He’s expected to return before the deadline, so the Bruins’ cap flexibility is much closer to $0. Schenn is a pending unrestricted free agent with an $850,000 cap hit, which Boston could swallow easily with some minor roster transactions, especially if Vancouver retains some salary for the short duration of the contract.
On the ice, though, Schenn doesn’t move the needle much for Boston. His +8 rating is second among Canucks defensemen, only behind Quinn Hughes, but more advanced metrics aren’t as kind to Schenn’s individual defensive impact this season at even strength. Schenn likely slots as an extra skater for Boston unless he can wrangle a lineup spot away from Connor Clifton, who’s played more minutes this season with better impacts defensively.
Acquiring depth is never a bad thing, though. Bringing Schenn into the fold also brings his 800-plus games of NHL experience, and he provides a more experienced option to step into the playoff lineup should injuries occur. The team still has Anton Stralman available under contract, but he’s played just 11 games this season, split between the NHL and AHL.
Thatcher Demko Returns To Practice
The Vancouver Canucks are a big step closer to getting a notable piece back into their lineup. Patrick Johnston of The Province reported Tuesday that injured goalie Thatcher Demko returned to practice for the first time since he was injured making a save against the Florida Panthers on December 1, 2022.
While Demko’s long-term standing in the Canucks organization remains unknown, his return could provide benefits. If Vancouver does opt to keep their once-named “goalie of the future” after a horrid start to 2022-23, a return to the ice makes a return to form a possibility for Demko, which should come with added confidence. Even if a trade is in the cards, a hot streak between now and the deadline for Demko would likely boost his trade value, giving Vancouver more assets to work with as they retool for future seasons. Hopefully, for Demko and the Canucks, he can make his 3-10-2 start to the season a distant memory.
- The New York Islanders have a distinct pattern of trading away first-round picks, and they did so again by dealing their top-12-protected 2023 pick to Vancouver in the Bo Horvat trade. It’s such a distinct pattern that Islanders fans have been wondering if the team can still trade their 2024 first-round pick, despite its potential transfer to the Canucks if New York ends up with a top-12 pick this season. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz reports clarification from the NHL that says yes, they can. If their 2024 first-round pick is transferred to the Canucks after being traded in a second deal, though, the pick in the second trade would automatically slide to 2025. It’s something other general managers will keep in mind at this deadline if the Islanders deal their 2024 pick in an attempt to load up even more.
Jonathan Lekkerimaki Expected To Miss Two Months With Foot Injury
It has already been a rather disappointing post-draft season for Vancouver Canucks prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki, the 15th overall pick from 2022. Now, after suffering a foot injury at practice, he is expected to miss the next eight weeks.
Through 29 games with Djurgardens IF this season, Lekkerimaki has scored just three goals and nine points. That’s despite the club being relegated and playing in the Swedish second tier this year, after being in the SHL during 2021-22. The young forward was also part of the World Junior team that lost to Czechia in the semi finals and then fell 8-7 to the United States in the bronze medal match.
While there have been very few players from the 2022 draft to suit up in the NHL to this point, many of those selected below Lekkerimaki have had more encouraging seasons. An absence of eight weeks won’t help his case, even though there is a long time before any expectations should be placed on the 18-year-old.
As a late-July birthday, Lekkerimaki was one of the younger players in his draft class and still has exceptional upside as an offensive winger. Perhaps some time off to recover will grant him a reset and allow him to return with some extra confidence.
Interestingly, he is only signed to his club through the end of this season, meaning an entry-level deal could be on the horizon. Next month, teams can start signing ELCs that begin in 2023-24 – Lekkerimaki is a good candidate, though he isn’t expected to push for an NHL job anytime soon.
Canucks Recall Three Players From AHL Abbotsford
With the Canucks set to return to action on Monday against New Jersey, they’ve made a trio of roster moves, announcing (Twitter link) the recalls of forwards Vasily Podkolzin, Phillip Di Giuseppe, and Nils Aman from Abbotsford of the AHL.
Podkolzin is the headliner of the three. The 21-year-old was a regular last season in Vancouver, picking up 14 goals and 12 assists in 79 games in his rookie campaign and the 2019 first-rounder was expected to take a step forward this year. However, he struggled out of the gate, notching just three assists in 16 games, resulting in him being sent to the AHL back in November. While Podkolzin didn’t light up the scoresheet by any stretch, he still fared reasonably well with Abbotsford, picking up seven goals and 11 helpers in 28 contests prior to the recall. Vancouver had just ten forwards on their roster before the recall so there’s a good chance that Podkolzkin will be in the lineup against the Devils.
This will be the third recall of the year for Di Giuseppe who had been sent back down when Vancouver hit the bye week. The 29-year-old has played just one game with Vancouver so far, his first appearance at the top level since 2020-21. Di Giuseppe has been quite productive in the minors, however, picking up 30 points in 33 games. He has seen NHL action in seven of the last eight seasons, tallying 16 goals and 37 assists in 202 appearances.
Aman, meanwhile, somewhat surprisingly cracked Vancouver’s opening roster out of training camp in his first season in North America. He got into 35 games with the team, logging just over 12 minutes a night but managed just a goal and four assists. That resulted him in him being sent down in late December and the demotion seemed to help him a bit offensively as he was more productive with Abbotsford, collecting four goals and five helpers in 17 contests.
With these moves, Vancouver’s roster now sits at the maximum size of 23 players.
Ilya Mikheyev Undergoes Season-Ending Surgery
Feb 2: The Canucks have announced Mikheyev underwent successful knee surgery today, though still did not give a concrete timeline for his recovery.
Jan 28: Although Canucks winger Ilya Mikheyev scored the game-winner in last night’s victory over Columbus, it will be his last goal (and game) for a while. Following the contest, the team announced (video link) that Mikheyev will miss the remainder of the season and will undergo knee surgery. An exact timeline for his recovery is not yet known. However, the expectation is that he will be ready for the start of training camp.
The injury actually occurred back in the preseason when he partially tore his ACL. At the time, the team opted to classify it as a lower-body injury but the 28-year-old only missed the first three games of the year before returning on October 18th. To his credit, Mikheyev did pretty well under the circumstances, collecting 13 goals and 15 assists (tying his career high) in 46 games despite being slowed down due to the tear. Those numbers were fairly close to the ones he had with Toronto the year before that helped him land a four-year $19MM contract this summer.
Since he will be out for the year, Vancouver will be able to put Mikheyev and his $4.75MM AAV on LTIR, giving them some extra flexibility to navigate the salary cap for the stretch run. While the Canucks aren’t likely to be buyers (they sit sixth in the Pacific Division and are a dozen points out of a Wild Card spot), this will give them a chance to be a bit more creative when it comes to salary retention or taking an expiring contract back to facilitate a trade.
Although Vancouver was only carrying 13 healthy forwards on their roster for Friday’s game (including Mikheyev), the team also revealed postgame (Twitter link) that winger Phillip Di Giuseppe was assigned to AHL Abbotsford. The 28-year-old was a healthy scratch against Columbus and has just one NHL appearance under his belt this season. With now just 11 forwards on their roster, more roster moves will be expected once their schedule resumes after the All-Star break.
Evening Notes: Boeser, IIHF/Russia, NHLPA Leadership
After the Bo Horvat trade yesterday, the floodgates appear to be opening on the trade front. That’s especially true for the Vancouver Canucks, who have some desirable trade assets other than Horvat that could find their way out of town by the trade deadline.
One of those is Brock Boeser, who TSN’s Darren Dreger said today continues to receive interest from around the league. However, he reported that any Boeser trade, and the corresponding interest, hinges on how much salary Vancouver is willing to retain in a potential trade. Boeser is signed to a steep cap hit of $6.65MM for the next three seasons. With so many teams already dipping into LTIR pools to stay cap-compliant, Vancouver is unlikely to find a trade partner willing to take the full brunt of the deal. The 25-year-old has nine goals and 30 points in 41 games this season. That’s a 60-point pace over 82 games.
- TSN’s Chris Johnston also reported on today’s edition of Insider Trading that the IIHF has a council meeting set up for March to discuss the status of Russian and Belarusian players in future international hockey events. Johnston notes that any changes to the current ban on those athletes participating won’t be lifted by the World Championship events in Spring 2023. Still, there could be a change in policy heading into the 2024 calendar of events. The conversation was reignited by the International Olympic Committee’s decision to allow Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, they likely would have to compete under a neutral flag.
- As the NHLPA continues its search to name a new executive director, NHL analyst John Shannon today reported the list of players comprising the organization’s search committee. Ian Cole (TBL), Jacob Trouba (NYR), James van Riemsdyk (PHI), Justin Faulk (STL), Kevin Shattenkirk (ANA), Kyle Okposo (BUF), Mattias Ekholm (NSH), Nate Schmidt (WPG), Sam Gagner (WPG), and Zach Hyman (EDM) are the members who will determine the replacement for outgoing director Donald Fehr.
Vancouver Canucks Reassign Aatu Raty
After acquiring him yesterday, the Vancouver Canucks have officially loaned Aatu Raty to the Abbotsford Canucks of the AHL, where he’ll acclimate himself to the organization.
Raty, 20, is one of only 12 players from the 2021 draft class to have played in the NHL, suiting up 12 times for the Islanders this season. Those games actually mean the first year of his entry-level contract will be burned even if the Canucks keep him in the minor leagues the rest of the season, and have him on schedule to reach restricted free agency in the summer of 2025.
With the addition of Anthony Beauvillier, to essentially fill Bo Horvat’s roster spot, Vancouver doesn’t need Raty in the NHL just yet. But should they make any more subtractions over the next few weeks, he could potentially get some time in down the stretch. The second-round pick had 15 points in 27 games with the Bridgeport Islanders and two goals during his time with New York, but has shown flashes of even more offensive upside in an excellent post-draft career so far.
Harman Dayal of The Athletic wrote today about Raty’s journey from top prospect to a falling draft asset but noted that he’s now viewed by scouts across the league as a “near-lock” to play on an NHL third line, with a ceiling even higher than that. While some expect him to play more wing at the next level, Vancouver is still hoping to keep him in the middle for now.
Vancouver is off until February 6, but Abbotsford has three games before then. Given the NHL squad is carrying just 20 players as they head into the break, there could even be a recall even sooner than expected.