Saturday, October 9 - Edmonton Oilers 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Did the reconfigured Vancouver Canucks accomplish what they'd hoped during preseason?
Well, they got two games worth of ice time for Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, which should help them when the games start to count for real next week.
But plenty of questions remain after the Canucks wrapped up their exhibition schedule on Saturday night with a one-goal loss to an Edmonton Oilers group that was without Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse and Tyson Barrie, just to name a few.
Mikko Koskinen stopped all 11 shots he faced in the first period, which the Canucks started strong but finished in a 2-0 hole. Stuart Skinner played the last two periods and made 15 stops, with the Canucks' two goals coming in garbage time, late in the third period.
All told, Vancouver outshot Edmonton 28-18 and out-attempted the Oilers 61-27, but ended up finishing out the preseason schedule with a 2-5 record, and a record of 1-2-0 back at Rogers Arena — 2-2 overall in home games if you're willing to count the 4-2 win over Calgary in Abbotsford.
The team's roster questions are so complex, there isn't even much point right now in trying to guess who will play on opening night. It sounds like Brock Boeser will be good to go on Wednesday, but Brandon Sutter and Tyler Motte are still in limbo and could start the season on some form of injured reserve.
On the left side of the defense, will Jack Rathbone start the season with the big club? Appearing in all seven preseason games, he's the only Vancouver player who got more than five. But he's also waiver exempt, which means he can be stashed on the Abbotsford roster — even temporarily — while other business is addressed.
Like trading Olli Juolevi?
UPDATE: Pierre LeBrun has reported that Juolevi was traded to the Florida Panthers on Sunday, not long after the waiver list came out.
The return is defenseman Noah Juulsen & forward Juho Lammikko.
Juulsen is a 24-year-old right-shot defenseman from Surrey, who was drafted in the first round by Montreal in 2015. He has had terrible concussion issues, and has played just 48 NHL games. He has already cleared waivers.
Lammikko is a 25-year-old winger, who was drafted in the third round by Florida in 2014. He has 84 NHL games on his resume, including 44 last season. He came over to North America right after being drafted, playing in the Kingston Frontenacs and the AHL, and was part of that Finnish team that won the gold medal at the 2019 World Championship in Slovakia. He has not yet cleared waivers.
On Saturday,
Thomas Drance and Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic reported that the 23-year-old is being shopped as a trade possibility, in hopes that he can return an asset rather than be lost for nothing on waivers.
Juolevi's fate may have finally been sealed after his grim performance during that skating test on Day 1 of training camp. He did get into four preseason games, and showed some utility as a penalty killer, but hasn't skated with the main training camp group since Quinn Hughes returned to the fold last week.
With the regular season beginning on Tuesday this year, instead of Wednesday, the last day for teams to put players on waivers before setting their opening-night rosters is Sunday. Those cap-compliant rosters are due at 2 p.m. PT on Monday.
Sunday's waiver news is trickling out as I put the finishing touches on this blog. Juolevi is *not* on the list, but Travis Hamonic is.
If Hamonic clears, he can be assigned to Abbotsford, giving the Canucks a cap saving of just over $1 million. But given that he still hasn't reported, I don't think this story is over.
Will another team claim him? If that happens, the Canucks are free of the $3 million cap commitment — but still have that hole on the right side that needs filling.
Three other Vancouver players were also placed on waivers on Sunday — forwards Phillip Di Giuseppe and Justin Bailey, and defenseman Madison Bowey.
Di Giuseppe got a lot of love during training camp, playing in five games and scoring a net-front goal against the Oilers on Saturday night.
But he and Bailey are wingers — as was Jonah Gadjovich. Most of thhe bubble forwards that the Canucks have chosen not to waive can play in the middle — Nic Petan, Justin Dowling and Matthew Highmore.
After a rather *meh* training camp, winger Zack MacEwen is also spared from the waiver list — as are Brad Hunt and Kyle Burroughs on the blue line.
Even with Hamonic presumably off the roster, that leaves nine defensemen still in the mix:
• Lefites: Hughes, OEL, Rathbone, Hunt, Juolevi
• Righties: Poolman, Myers, Schenn, Burroughs
Right place, right time for Kyle Burroughs, who has been pretty steady through camp in a larger-than-expected role.
We'll also have to wait to see what happens with PTO candidate Alex Chiasson — who I'd also also passed some of the other wingers on the depth chart during camp. I image a contract decision on him will come after the team sees what happens with Hamonic — and his cap hit.
Here's the full list of Sunday's waiver assignments from around the league:
Now, back to penalty killing. Travis Green identified that as an area of concern on the first day of camp, with Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel gone and Brandon Sutter and Tyler Motte injured.
Looking at
shorthanded time on ice from last season, three of the Canucks' top four penalty-killing defensemen are also not here: Alex Edler, Nate Schmidt and Hamonic.
Out of last season's nine busiest penalty killers by total ice time, only two have played in preseason: Tyler Myers and J.T. Miller. Tanner Pearson was 10th and Matthew Highmore actually slotted into 12th spot, despite only playing 18 games with Vancouver.
According to the NHL's preseason stats, the Canucks' 10 power-play goals against in preseason were tops in the league. Not all teams played the same number of games, but Ottawa gave up nine, and Florida, Vegas and Philadelphia gave up eight.
Vancouver got plenty of time to practice the penalty kill, too. Shorthanded 32 times in seven games, that number was behind only Calgary (34) and Ottawa and Nashville with 33 each.
All told, the Canucks' preseason penalty killing ranked 30th overall, with a success rate of 68.8%. Last season, they were actually in the middle of the pack, tied with Florida for 17th at 79.8%.
Considering their generally anemic offense — 15 goals in seven games, with Nic Petan and J.T. Miller leading the way with four points apiece — I'm not as worried about the power play. It came out at 5 for 27, for 18.5 percent — actually better than last year's 17.4% in the regular season, despite five games without Pettersson and Hughes.
Edmonton's nine power-play goals led the league — not surprising. The top percentage, though, belonged to Detroit (!): 8-for-25 for 32%.
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