The Vancouver Canucks are finding a way to make lemonade out of lemons — a rash of injuries to their forwards and their still-low position in the NHL standings.
On Monday, the club plucked its second player in less than a week off the waiver wire from the Toronto Maple Leafs. After acquiring winger Jimmy Vesey last Wednesday, Jim Benning has also now scooped up depth centre Travis Boyd.
After dropping a 5-4 shootout decision to Montreal on Saturday night, the Canucks came home from their four-game road trip with seven of a possible eight points in their pocket, and are back at .500 for the first time since Feb. 1. By points percentage, that ties Vancouver with the Rangers, Arizona and Dallas.
Those four clubs hold down spots 21 through 24 in the league rankings. Below them, in order: Nashville, New Jersey, San Jose, Detroit, Anaheim, Ottawa, Buffalo.
That bottom six looks awfully familiar — all teams that missed the playoffs last season. Only Los Angeles has broken out, and as they currently sit fifth in the West division, five points behind Minnesota and St. Louis, it looks unlikely that they'll be able to get all the way back to a playoff spot this season.
I think we usually see more churn than this at the bottom of the standings. How badly have the bad teams been handicapped this year by not having gotten into the bubble last summer? Are they continuing to struggle because their core players went 10 months without playing a game or having any meaningful team interaction?
Anyway. My point is that the Canucks have been hanging low enough in the standings that they got to be first on the waiver claim list if multiple teams were interested in claiming Vesey or Boyd. And these are savvy moves for the team to be making at this time.
First — we've got the injury thing. As discussed in the last blog, Elias Pettersson has now been moved to long-term injured reserve, and
Thomas Drance of The Athletic is reporting on Monday that his timeline could be another week or two. He won't be back until sometime after the team's week-long hiatus that starts this Thursday.
Second — Jay Beagle has now been absent with an undisclosed issue for the last five games. For now, according to
CapFriendly, he's on regular injured reserve. I haven't seen a word about what's ailing him, but he did take the morning skate in a non-contact jersey on Monday morning.
Tanner Pearson also went onto regular IR after he was injured in Ottawa on Wednesday. Drance reports that Pearson remained with the Canucks on the road due to Covid protocols, and won't see a specialist in Vancouver until Tuesday. Now, apparently, there's some hope that maybe his timeline won't be as long as the four-week window that was originally projected.
That's key, of course, because four weeks would push his absence past the April 12 trade deadline. And that's a big deal because the plan was to see if they could ink the well-liked winger to a new deal before that date. If not, then he'd presumably be moved.
But here's one more wrinkle: during Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Canucks' recent success has the club reconsidering whether or not to be sellers. And that is slowing down the entire trade market, especially in Canada, because there was interest in Vancouver's players.
By adding Vesey, and now Boyd, the Canucks are shoring up their current lineup with some solid depth pieces. Vesey doesn't have a point yet, but has looked good in his first two games in a Vancouver uniform — both on the power play and when combining on a heavy forecheck with J.T. Miller.
Boyd, 27, is a Minnesota native who was originally drafted in the sixth round by Washington. After playing four years at the University of Minnesota and then slogging away in the minors for three seasons, he finally made his NHL debut in the 2017-18 season.
But he remained a tweener on a deep Caps team. He started the 2019-20 season in Hershey after clearing waivers, and got into just 24 regular-season games with Washington — as well as four playoff games in the bubble.
He also got into one playoff game during the Caps' 2018 run, so that would have earned him a Stanley Cup ring. And of course, in Vancouver he'll be reunited with his old Washington/Hershey teammates Beagle, Braden Holtby and Nate Schmidt, as well as Vesey from the Leafs.
After the Capitals chose not to issue the restricted free agent a qualifying offer off his $800,000 cap hit at the end of the year, Boyd signed with Toronto for a cap hit of $700,000.
Boyd cleared waivers at the beginning of this season and bounced back and forth to the taxi squad as the Leafs worked to accrue cap space. He also played in 20 games, picking up eight points while averaging less than 10 minutes a game. But as the Leafs got healthier, the club elected to put him on waivers again. And now, their loss is Vancouver's gain.
The Leafs last played in Toronto on Saturday night, shutting out Calgary. So I presume Boyd will have to go through quarantine before he can suit up for Vancouver. He should be good to go after the hiatus.
In addition to helping on-ice depth through the stretch run, picking up players like Vesey and Boyd will also protect the Canucks if they do decide to move out any of their forwards at or before the trade deadline. With call-ups from Utica so difficult, they could have easily ended up shorthanded.
That's probably also part of the reason why Tyler Graovac came to Vancouver after suffering a concussion with the Manitoba Moose. He's cleared to play now, through quarantine, and has been added to the taxi squad.
Drance reports that Kole Lind is also now in town. After putting up eight points in eight AHL games this season, he suffered a broken nose in Utica in early March. By seeing a specialist here in Vancouver, he's also logging quarantine days that could allow him to join the taxi squad or the main roster once he's declared fit to play.
All this roster intrigue is overshadowing the fact that the Canucks have two more crucial games against Winnipeg this week before that hiatus begins. They need to pocket more points before sitting on the sidelines while watching their rivals make up those games in hand that have lurked in the background all season long.
The Jets remain, shall we say, enigmatic. A week ago, they were surging up the standings and looking to challenge the Leafs for top spot in the North Division. Then, they dropped a pair of road games to Edmonton, managing just three goals in total across the two contests.
It's the first time all season that Winnipeg has lost two in a row. They're now third in the North, four points behind Toronto and Edmonton — and just three up on Vancouver. Imagine the havoc that a pair of regulation wins for the Canucks this week could create!
And considering how grim the Canucks' record usually is against the Jets, the series this season has gone pretty well so far. Vancouver is 2-2-1, with Laurent Brossoit surprisingly in net for both of the regulation losses.
Not surprisingly, Thatcher Demko gets the nod in net for Monday's game.
Here's a look at Monday's morning skate. The only noteworthy appearance is Beagle, out there in the non-contact jersey.
While you're waiting for puck drop at 7 p.m., there are two early North Division games to monitor. Edmonton is visiting Montreal, while Calgary is in Ottawa.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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