Thursday February 25 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Ottawa Senators - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 59 GP, 23-24-12, 58 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Ottawa Senators: 61 GP, 29-26-6, 64 pts, fifth in Atlantic Division
After three days of uninterrupted trade speculation and a couple of minor deals, the Vancouver Canucks will get back on the ice Thursday night when the streaking Ottawa Senators come to town.
The Canucks remain stuck in 24th place in the overall league standings but the possibility of a late playoff surge is looking more and more impossible. Wednesday's shootout win by Colorado over San Jose puts Vancouver 10 points out of a Western Conference wild-card spot and 12 points out of third place in the Pacific.
It's going to be a fight to the finish for Pacific positioning by those California teams, by the way. The Kings, Ducks and Sharks are all within four points of each other.
The news is a little better for the Sens, who have made up some ground and are now just four points out of the Eastern Conference wild card, though they'd have to leapfrog two other teams to get there if they hope to be Canada's representative in this year's playoffs.
Has Dion Phaneuf been a factor? Hard to say. The Sens lost their first three games after acquiring the former Maple Leafs captain, but have now given up just six goals during the four-game winning streak. They've still been surrendering more than 30 shots a game, though, so it looks to me like goaltender Craig Anderson's on one of his patented hot streaks. He played all four games and was named the NHL's third star last week. I expect he'll get the nod at Rogers Arena tonight.
Of course, Erik Karlsson is the defenseman who's worth the price of admission to watch. The reigning Norris Trophy holder leads all blueliners in the NHL in ice time, averaging 29 minutes a game, and in points, with 65 in 61 games. That puts him on pace for an 87 points season—the most by a defenseman in 20 years.
The Canucks dropped their first meeting of the year in Ottawa by a score of 3-2 back in November but the Sens are one of the few teams in the league with a poorer overall defensive record than Vancouver. Ottawa's 26th overall with 3.00 goals allows per game compared to 2.80 for the Canucks (23rd), the Sens are 29th in penalty killing compared to 15th for the Canucks, and Ottawa gives up an average of 33 shots per game, the most in the league, while Vancouver ranks 28th at 31.7 shots per game.
The Canucks are riding a glorious one-game winning streak after beating Colorado last Sunday. Radim Vrbata will be out of the lineup after sustaining some sort of lower-body injury against the Avalanche, and new acquisition Markus Granlund will make his debut at centre on a line with Emerson Etem and Linden Vey, who missed the last two games.
Here are the rest of the lines from Thursday's morning skate. Looks like Jared McCann is in once again, and Adam Cracknell is out.
Cracknell and Vey are two of the seven names that appeared on the Canucks' "open for business" message that was sent out around the league on Wednesday:
Considering Kenins, Higgins and Prust are currently in the minors and Vey and Weber have also cleared waivers this season, it's not a real enticing list for teams looking to shore up their rosters for a playoff push. Only Cracknell and Bartkowski haven't been on waivers at any point this season, so it's the first sign we've seen that Jim Benning would be willing to part with them.
The real intrigue, still, surrounds impending UFAs Dan Hamhuis and Radim Vrbata, both of whom have some sort of no-trade clauses. They'd need to give their permission before they're dealt, which could explain why they were not included on the list.
The latest today—maybe Chicago has been looking at Hamhuis as well as Vrbata?
The Blackhawks got full value out of Antoine Vermette and Kimmo Timonen as supplemental players at the 2015 trade deadline, and took both players all the way to the Stanley Cup.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago when Washington looked like it could be in the mix, a Cup win for Hamhuis would make him a member of the elite Triple Gold Club when added to his World Championship and Olympic gold medals. Surely he'd waive for that?
The Hawks have been thin at defense all year and didn't find solutions with the acquisitions of either Trevor Daley or Rob Scuderi, so it does make sense that they could be targeting a blueliner as well as a winger. And if Vrbata and Hamhuis are packaged together, the return could be better than Vrbata alone.
The question—how would the cap-crunched Blackhawks absorb a $9.5 million cap hit?
If the Canucks retained 50 percent on both players, that'd reduce it to $4.75 million, and
General Fanager is showing the Blackhawks with...huh!....$4.758 million in cap space available on deadline day!
I suspect that number factors in Marian Hossa's current injury. I also suspect that Stan Bowman will be trying to move Bryan Bickell, whose albatross contract will only have one more year on it at $4 million after this season.
If the Canucks need to take on Bickell for one year in order to obtain a quality asset like a first-round draft pick or one of Chicago's young prospects, that'd be interesting to me. I don't think they'd give up Teuvo Teravainen. Maybe Marko Dano—a 21-year-old currently playing in Rockford?
Before we all decide Chicago is a done deal, a word from the other side. Brian Hedger covers the Blackhawks for NHL.com and he doesn't see Vrbata as a fit:
Certainly, Vrbata can play top six. But he has never played the left side during his time in Vancouver—and I highly doubt that Hossa's going to make a switch.
Andrew Shaw always looks good to me with Toews and Hossa, adding a chippy element and a willingness to go to the net, so maybe a third-line RW does make sense?
One other item to note about Chicago—the Blackhawks do not have a second-round pick this year. They do have two fourths and two fifths, acquired from previous trades.
Lastly for today, the Canucks did acquire a blueliner on Wednesday, picking up the rights to Philip Larsen from Edmonton in exchange for a conditional fifth-round pick.
Larsen is a 26-year-old Dane who is currently playing in the KHL. He was originally drafted in the fifth round by Dallas and has 125 games of NHL experience on his resume. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a chunk of his time in Dallas coincides with the period where Glen Gulutzan was head coach and Willie Desjardins was his associate.
Larsen was traded to Edmonton during the summer of 2013 as part of the Shawn Horcoff deal, but bolted for the KHL after one season. This year, he finished the regular season ranked fifth in scoring by defensemen in the league with 11-25-36—but it's probably worth noting that the KHL's top-scoring defenseman in the 2015-16 regular season was a previous Canucks castoff, Cam Barker.
Larsen's a right-shot defenseman who can run a power play, Jim Benning told
Iain MacIntyre of the
Vancouver Sun, and his strength has apparently improved during his two seasons in the KHL.
At 26, Larsen should be entering his hockey prime and, as MacIntyre points out, "Larsen’s skill and potential job description make him seem like Yannick Weber’s replacement on the roster."
In this case, Benning is certainly out to fill a need, and I'm pleased to see the team moving on from Weber. A fifth-round pick is a low price to pay, but I'll be surprised if Larsen turns out to be anything more than a marginal upgrade.
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