The Vancouver Canucks have returned to Rogers Arena after having improved their road record to 3-7-1 thanks to their 2-1 road trip over U.S. Thanksgiving.
Vancouver plays three nicely-spaced out games at home this week—Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday against the Anaheim Ducks, then the much-anticipated rematch with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
The big news out of practice today: yep, Alex Elder's out for awhile.
Here's how Willie Desjardins deployed his defense pairs today:
That's a big promotion for Luca Sbisa—and good for him. He has been solid in his third-pairing role this season, especially since he has been playing with Nikita Tryamkin.
Sbisa's averaging 16:48 of ice time this year, which is below his career average of 17:38, but he logged a hefty 24:06 after Edler was injured in Colorado on Saturday—his first time all year over 20 minutes—and finished with a nice plus-1. He and Nikita Tryamkin lead the team with plus-3 ratings—and Alex Burrows is now right behind them at plus-2.
Philip Larsen will draw back in this week. He has been on injured reserve since November 8 for what was said to have been a virus, so he has missed the last nine games—the same nine games where the Canucks have gone 5-3-1 since snapping their earlier nine-game losing streak.
I'm not saying there's a direct correlation, but it's certainly an interesting coincidence.
After sitting in the press box for more than a month before finally being assigned to Utica for a conditioning stint this weekend, Alex Biega is now being recalled as the team's seventh defenseman. Because of how things are going with injuries, the team has already figured out who'll be next on the list...
It might not be too much longer before Chris Tanev gets back into action.
Tanev has played just seven games this season. He originally suffered his ankle injury during that first road trip to California in late October, then returned for one game before going back on IR.
We're barely a quarter of the way through the season, and the Canucks have already used 26 different skaters on their roster—17 forwards and nine defensemen, as well as two different backup goalies who didn't get into game action.
Just another typical year in Vancouver. Last year, they deployed 34 different skaters by season's end—23 forwards and 11 defensemen. Expect the turnstile to keep on spinning.
Up front, the team did get one good bit of news:
I'm excited to see if Baertschi can tap back into that same fire he showed during his three-point game in Arizona last week when he gets back into action.
The other big topic of conversation that has swirled over the past week or so has been the contract status of Bo Horvat.
Ben Kuzma has a solid analysis of the Horvat situation in
The Province.
Kuzma praises Benning for going public with his Horvat plans, saying the announcement sends the right message about a player who looks like he'll be Vancouver's next captain.
When talking about comparable players who have recently signed new deals, Elliotte Friedman cited Rickard Rakell of Anaheim and Victor Rask of Carolina as players in the same ballpark during the Headlines section on last weekend's Hockey Night in Canada.
Here are a few more names to ponder:
Kuzma argues that Horvat's future could be right up there with Barkov, who signed a six-year deal with a cap hit of $5.9 million a season that kicked in this year in Florida.
Barkov's fantastic, but the Panthers have taken some heat around the league for raising the salary bar by going all-in on their young players. I've heard more complaints about how Aaron Ekblad's eight-year extension at $7.5 million a season—which doesn't even start until next year—has upset the market value for blue-chip young defensemen.
If Horvat keeps up his offensive production this season, it'll be hard not to pay him the big bucks. He's already Vancouver's leading scorer with seven goals and 15 points, which puts him on pace for 26 goals and 56 points. That seems like a plausible jump, considering he improved from 25 points in his rookie year up to 40 points last season.
Rakell, 23, earned his deal with the $3.8 million AAV after seasons of 31 and 43 points. After his holdout, he has quickly amassed 12 points in 13 games so far this season. Victor Rask, also 23, got a six-year deal with an AAV of $4 million after seasons of 33 and 48 points. He's making the Hurricanes look smart for locking him down, second in team scoring with eight goals and 17 points.
Looks to me like $4 million will be a starting point in Horvat's negotiations. When you factor in his leadership and other intangibles—and the fact that, at 21, he'll be going into his second deal a year earlier than Rakell or Rask—I think the Canucks will do very well if they can sign him long term for less than $5 million a season.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»