Saturday October 3 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers - 7:00 p.m. - Sportsnet, TSN1040
The Vancouver Canucks will be looking to sweep their home-and-home series against the Western Conference's best preseason team when they host the Edmonton Oilers to close out the exhibition schedule on Saturday night.
Before we get to the Canucks, it's important to note that Saturday's game is expected to mark the first appearance of one Connor McDavid at Rogers Arena. Here's a look at Edmonton's lineup:
After a rough outing against Vancouver on Thursday, $4.5 million defenseman Nikita Nikitin was placed on waivers today by the Oilers after they were unable to consummate a trade with Chicago for Bryan Bickell, who was put on waivers yesterday and has now cleared.
No word yet on the last few players the Canucks will need to place on waivers before starting the season.
As far as I know, 31-year-old winger Chris Porter, who was signed for the league minimum and has played 173 NHL games in his career, all with St. Louis, is the only player who has been claimed off waivers this week. Porter was demoted by the Philadelphia Flyers and picked up by Minnesota. Porter's good pals with Zach Parise—they playing together in high school at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Minnesota and at the University of North Dakota.
I mention this because I think it's indicative that very few teams have salary-cap or roster space to be shopping on the waiver wire this year—and many still have cuts to make.
As of Saturday morning,
General Fanager lists six clubs that are over the salary-cap limit and 24 that are at or above the 23-man roster limit.
Final rosters are due on Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET. That's when everyone needs to be down to 23 men and be cap compliant—including the salaries of players that they intend to move to injured reserve.
Some teams still have easy moves to make, as waiver-exempt players can be moved down to the AHL—even for the short term if a roster spot is needed for an injured player.
That's what the Canucks did on Friday afternoon when they assigned their last two waiver-exempt forwards, Brendan Gaunce and Ronalds Kenins, to Utica.
Kenins' name comes as no surprise. Despite his one-way contract, he hasn't stood out in training camp like he did when he was called up by Vancouver midway through last seaon.
Gaunce, on the other hand, surprises me. I had assumed that he'd be the fill-in for injured Chris Higgins—and I suppose that could still happen, if he gets recalled once Higgins is placed on IR. But it sounds like the Canucks are going all-in with their long look at the three young training-camp standouts: Jake Virtanen, Jared McCann and Ben Hutton.
It's remarkable that three prospects have a real shot at making the opening-night lineup. It's even more remarkable when you think that all three are attending their first NHL training camps. Virtanen and McCann were both sidelined with injuries last year, while Hutton was still in college. This trio really has emerged virtually without warning.
With 15 forwards and nine defensemen remaining in camp, three more cuts need to be made before Chris Higgins is assigned to injured reserve. Here's how Matt Sekeres of TSN1040 thinks the rest of the moves will play out:
Ben Hutton is waiver exempt. Biega and Cracknell are not, but both spent most of their seasons in the AHL last year and were unrestricted free agents this summer, so they should both clear.
If this is the Canucks' plan, then they're covered both ways.
They'll get a chance to keep Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann for their well-deserved nine-game trials before deciding whether or not to return them to their junior teams—and they'll have room to bring back Hutton. All without exposing Linden Vey, Frank Corrado or Yannick Weber to waivers.
At this juncture, it's not just a matter of looking more closely at the young players. Hutton, McCann and Virtanen have been among the team's best players through preseason and may be what the Canucks need to win games in 2015-16.
Iain MacIntyre of the
Vancouver Sun isn't one to typically throw caution to the wind, but he's all in on playing the kids in his
latest column:
The biggest challenge Friday and this weekend for Benning and his hockey-operations staff is deciding how many of their impressive A-list prospects to keep — uh, just about all of them — and whom to drop from the NHL roster to make room for them.
MacIntyre makes the argument that an infusion of young talent can help to re-energize the team's lackluster fanbase—and maybe help the Canucks sell some of those tickets that they're working so hard to unload.
MacIntyre's willing to cut the cord on Linden Vey, suggesting that Adam Cracknell is a better fit at the fourth-line centre spot between Brandon Prust and Derek Dorsett.
From his Friday conversation with Jim Benning, it certainly sounds like Ben Hutton will start the season with the team:
“We knew Ben Hutton was going to be a good player, but we didn’t know he was going to challenge for a lineup spot this year,” Benning said. “We thought he would become a top-four defenceman eventually, but we didn’t know he could play with this kind of poise with the puck. On any given night, he has been one of our top two or three defencemen.”
Line combinations have just come in for today's practice. Brandon Sutter (!) is getting a look with the twins, while Radim Vrbata gets a chance to show he's as good as Jake Virtanen, playing with Baertschi and Horvat:
As good as Bae-Ho-Virt were on Thursday against Edmonton, the idea of relying on a complete line whose oldest player is 22-year-old Baertschi is slightly terrifying.
Vrbata has been campaigning to play with Horvat through preseason. Here's his chance to show that they can create some magic together.
Also interesting to note that Vey's the extra man. His preseason audition is over, for better or for worse.
Jon Abbott has the full lineup for today's morning skate, including the defense pairs:
Hutton will skate with Luca Sbisa for the second straight game. If he does as well as he did on Thursday, I'd say he's a lock to make the team.
This'll be a fun one tonight! Enjoy the game.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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