The Canucks are currently enjoying three days off between games for the first time in nearly two months.
Today, a bit of a grab bag of news and notes surrounding the team.
First off: if you missed it, this is the latest update on Dan Hamhuis' condition after he took that slap shot to the face on Wednesday night.
Hopefully, the surgery goes well.
For all the heat Hamhuis has taken for his play this season, his absence creates a real hole on the blue line. He's third on the team in ice time, averaging 19:39 per game including 2:22 on the penalty kill, and believe it or not, he's a plus-7—second on the team behind Jannik Hansen at plus-9.
With Luca Sbisa still on the shelf, I expect Yannick Weber will be the first fill-in option. The Canucks could also call up another defenseman from Utica.
If the Canucks do make a call-up, I think Taylor Fedun's the most likely candidate. Though he didn't get into the Canucks' lineup when he was briefly recalled earlier this season, he's having an excellent season with the Comets so far. My gut feeling is that the organization didn't feel comfortable inserting Andrey Pedan into the NHL lineup when he was with the team a couple of weeks ago. I think they'd feel safer using Fedun.
I'm not surprised to see Alex Biega playing well—for the moment. Though he's not the biggest guy on the ice at 5'10" and 187 pounds, Biega's not afraid to use his body. That's good news in the short term, but we might also see him start to wear down as the number of games he plays increases.
For now, the 27-year-old is using his Harvard smarts to deliver rock-solid defense. In five games, Biega's an impressive plus-4 and hasn't been a minus player once. He played a career high 19:02 against the Rangers on Wednesday, so hopefully he'll be able to handle an increased workload while Hamhuis is sidelined.
I'd guess the Canucks are waiting to hear the outcome of Hamhuis' surgery before they enter too seriously into possible trade talks. The NHL's holiday roster freeze will be in effect from December 19-27, so Jim Benning has another week to see if he can swing a realistic deal.
I wonder if the Canucks would have entertained claiming Mark Fayne if he'd been put on waivers by Edmonton a couple of days later? He's only 28, but his contract with the cap hit of $3.625 million runs for two more years after this season.
Fayne's minus-8 was worst among the Oilers' blueliners this season before he was waived. I got the impression that Todd McLellan could no longer stomach his mistakes and is now ready to see if Nikita Nikitin can do any better.
Meanwhile, 23-year-old Jarred Tinordi is gathering rust in the press box in Montreal. He hasn't played a single game this season and it's assumed that he'd be trade bait.
This idea makes me nervous. I don't like the fact that the former first-rounder Tinordi hasn't been able to stick at the NHL level so far, and has been passed on the Montreal depth chart not just by Nathan Beaulieu but also by 25-year-old fifth-round pick Greg Pateryn as the team's seventh defenseman.
Also, when I think about how Jarred's father Mark Tinordi played the game, I picture a plodding skater who played a very physical style that was anchored in the clutch-and-grab tactics of the Dead Puck Era. Not saying that father and son are always the same player—look at Max Domi!—but for me Mark's legacy suggests that the Canucks must proceed with caution.
That being said, the Habs have been extraordinarily healthy on the blue line so far this season, which has limited Tinordi's opportunity to play. Only Alexei Emelin has missed any time with injury, and that was only five games.
By contract, the Canucks have already used nine defensemen on the ice this season if you count Andrey Pedan, whose game came at forward. Not one Canuck defenseman has appeared in all 30 games this season—Alex Edler and Matt Bartkowski are closest, at 29.
I'm going to wait until we know a little more about Hamhuis' prognosis before I start speculating on how his injury will impact the possibility of his being dealt at the deadline, or even his future in hockey.
One other quick note from the blue line:
Brisebois has 4-8-12 with Acadie-Bathurst of the QMJHL so far this season but as Vantel loves to point out, this pales in comparison with fifth-round pick Carl Neill of Sherbrooke, who's fourth in scoring among QMJHL defensemen with 4-23-27 in 28 games. Neill is one year ahead in his development—he was drafted in his second year of eligibility and turned 19 in July, whereas Brisebois was drafted at age 17 and only turned 18 in July.
The Canucks are back on the ice at Rogers Arena today. Here's the overview:
Hopefully we're just looking at maintenance days for Henrik and Dorsett.
I saw Brandon Prust and Bo Horvat each leave the ice in some discomfort during the Rangers game on Wednesday, so I'm glad to see there don't appear to be any lingering issues for those two players.
Our first look at the new D pairings has Yannick Weber back with Ben Hutton and Alex Biega skating with Matt Bartkowski.
Finally,
click here for my latest Canucks Army piece, where I take a deeper look at what's fuelling the Sedins' success so far this season.
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