Monday October 3 - Arizona Coyotes 4 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Playing their second game in as many nights, the Vancouver Canucks fell to the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night at Rogers Arena. Here are your highlights:
Without a doubt, the best moment of the night for the Canucks was Ben Hutton's dazzling Bobby Orr-style goal.
#Canucks trail the Coyotes 4-2 after 40; shots are 24-23 Vancouver.
Still, for a guy who got one goal during his entire rookie season, he's off to a good start here and looks like he's not headed for a sophomore slump. Don't forget, last week against the Oilers he also scored, although the goal wasn't counted.
Playing on a pairing with Larsen, Hutton had a team-leading five shots on goal on Monday, while the twin towers pair of Erik Gudbranson and Nikita Tryamkin was a bit of an adventure.
As for Troy Stecher, he had nine shot attempts and logged 23:43 of ice time, playing on the top pairing with Alex Edler and in all special-teams situations.
Willie Desjardins said before Monday's game that the plan will be to keep eight defensemen, and the team is acknowledging that Stecher might turn out to be one of those eight.
Edler, Tanev, Hutton and Gudbranson are the locks.
That leaves Sbisa, Larsen, Pedan, Tryamkin, Biega and Stecher. Two players from that group will not be on the opening-night roster.
I think Biega is the first cut. He's a journeyman who has cleared waivers before, and is on a pretty substantial one-way contract at $750,000 this season. When other teams are also making tough cuts, he'll almost certainly clear and can bring his hockey smarts and leadership back to the Comets.
After that, I think the best-case scenario is to try to convince Tryamkin that his game would be best served by a short stint in Utica. He is waiver exempt, so the move wouldn't put anybody at risk—and I genuinely think that some time in the minors would really help his development.
When he was signed last spring, the Canucks promised him that he wouldn't be sent to the AHL. But things change and maybe the big guy would understand, at this point, that big minutes and a bit more seasoning would be the best recipe for long-term success.
Trevor Linden guested with Blake Price during last night's second intermission. He talks about how much he likes Stecher starting at about the 4:40 mark of this clip, but stops well short of guaranteeing him a spot on the roster.
I think Tryamkin still has plenty of possibility, but I prefer what I've seen from Andrey Pedan so far in this preseason—and I really don't want to see him put on waivers. For now, I think Sbisa and Larsen are guaranteed NHL spots. And I think this logjam will sort itself out when injuries become a factor. If Tryamkin won't go, then Stecher's the safe demotion—and will be the first call-up.
Meanwhile, the Utica Comets' training camp began today, with Jordan Subban leading the blue line corps. He's keeping a good attitude.
Subban says it was tough getting cut but doesn't feel #Canucks are giving up on him or that he didn't get a fair shake.
Up front, Tuomo Ruutu and Jack Skille both had solid games for the Canucks on Monday, but I don't think the math is on their side.
According to General Fanager, the Canucks have already used up 48 of their allotted 50 contracts for this season. It seems unlikely to me that they'd want to add another one at this time.
Also, if the Canucks are going to add a new forward to their mix, I'm not sure that Ruutu or Skille have done enough to put themselves head-and-shoulders above prospects like Joe Labate and Borna Rendulic. Those two are both already under contract, have upside and can be assigned to the minors without risk.
Barring injury, I think the forward lines on opening night will look something like this:
The 13th spot will likely be a battle between Jake Virtanen and Emerson Etem, neither of whom have really helped their causes at camp. Granlund, I think, has shown well enough to raise his stock somewhat—though Willie wants to use him differently than he did last season.
"Don't like him as a 4th line centre..he doesn't get enough minutes there" #Canucks Desjardins on Granlund#CanucksOn1040
Though Etem hasn't been great in the last two games, I think he still holds the edge at No. 13 because he'd need to clear waivers to be sent to Utica. Virtanen is going to have to bring it, big time, in the last two preseason games if he wants to avoid starting this season on the farm.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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