Monday February 26 - Colorado Avalanche 3 - Vancouver Canucks 1
I felt like the Vancouver Canucks missed Thomas Vanek when they hit the ice in Denver on Monday night. They kept it close in their 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche but it seems scoring will be hard to come by for the rest of the year.
Here are your highlights:
Even though Jim Benning wasn't able to bring back a draft pick for Vanek, trading him was still the right thing to do. The Canucks can use his roster spot to put their young players in bigger roles—and as much as I hate to admit it, at this stage of the season, points don't really matter. Still, it'd be nice if the Canucks don't match their late-season swoon of last season, when they lost 13 of their last 15 games, including eight straight to close out the year, after dealing away Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen.
The draft lottery does reward teams that finish lower in the standings—even if the differences in the odds aren't very big.
Through 63 games last season, the Canucks were four games below .500, at 26-30-7 for 59 points. They'd finish with 69. This year, they're two wins below that pace, at 24-32-7 for 55 points. It'll be interesting to see where they land after the season wraps up on April 7.
Benning wasn't alone in failing to drum up a bidding war for his trade-deadline asset. We talked a lot about how Vanek's value would depend on what the market value turned out to be for Evander Kane—and Buffalo GM Jason Botterill also had to settle for a discounted price for Kane, when the San Jose Sharks were the only bidders to come to the table. When all was said and done, Botterill was also left with impending UFAs Benoit Pouliot, Josh Gorges and Justin Falk still on his roster, because nobody was interested.
Just like Vanek, Pouliot was signed to a one-year deal as a free agent last year and had previously been bought out of a bigger contract. If a contending team had been interested in either player, they had their chance to acquire him last summer.
Seeing him firsthand, Vanek brought way more to the Canucks than I was expecting, based on his pre-existing reputation. But that wasn't enough to change how he's perceived in the NHL marketplace—and he'd played for seven different teams before being dealt on Monday, so quite a few organizations to have first-hand experience.
One fascinating gift we've received from his trade to Columbus: the chance to see how he manages under the watchful eye of John Tortorella.
Even players are grabbing the popcorn:
Can we please have Vanek mic'd during his time in Columbus w/Torts ?!?!
— Mike Rupp (@Rupper17) February 26, 2018
😂😂😂 I’d want to hear the uncut version of it. https://t.co/m1UZZCexNs
— Marian Gaborik (@MGaborik12) February 26, 2018
For the Canucks, the key player in the trade is Tyler Motte, a 22-year-old forward who was drafted in the fourth round by Chicago out of the U.S. National Development Team back in 2013. He then spent three years at Michigan and was a Hobey Baker finalist in 2015-16. Motte played for Team USA at the 2015 World Junior Championship in Toronto and at the 2016 World Championship in Russia—where he was teammates (and roommates?) with Thatcher Demko.
Welcome @tmotte_14 excited to add you to the organization! #Roomies
— Thatcher Demko (@tdemko30) February 27, 2018
Motte turned pro in the fall of 2016. In his rookie season, he had seven points in 33 games with the Blackhawks and 17 points in 43 games with the AHL's Rockford Ice Hogs. Then, bundled into the big offseason trade that saw Artemi Panarin shipped to Columbus, Motte had five points in 31 games with the Blue Jackets this season, and 11 points in 17 games with the AHL's Cleveland Monsters. He was sent down and recalled five times over the course of this season, most recently in January.
Motte was on the Monsters roster at the time of the trade, but it sounds like he'll be joining the Canucks:
Tyler Motte and Nikolay Goldobin have been ‘papered’ to the @UticaComets so they are available for the playoffs.
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 26, 2018
With 64 career NHL games played, Motte can play 16 more NHL games before he requires waivers to be sent to the minors.
If Motte, Jokinen and Brendan Leipsic are all joining the Canucks, the team will need to make space on the roster. Loui Eriksson didn't play in Denver after suffering an upper-body injury in Arizona on Sunday. If he goes on IR, that'd leave the Canucks with 14 forwards and seven defensemen who are healthy, including all the new additions.
A couple of other notes from Monday's game:
• Jacob Markstrom had another strong performance, taking both halves of the back-to-back. He stopped 41 shots against the Coyotes, then another 25 against the dangerous Avs. I guess Travis Green was reluctant to go back to Anders Nilsson after that meltdown against Colorado last week in Vancouver.
• The penalty kill was also better on Monday, limiting the Avalanche to just one goal on five opportunities. After going 1-for-6 against Colorado last week, the penalty killers have gone 10-for-13 overall in the three subsequent road games.
• Daniel Sedin continues to roll. He scored Vancouver's only goal on Monday, his 19th of the year and sixth in the last six games.
Of course, the biggest sellers at this year's deadline were the New York Rangers, who got huge returns for their players after deciding to blow up their team less than three weeks ago.
The Rangers are currently in Vancouver, preparing to face the Canucks on Wednesday night without the likes of Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash and Michael Grabner. Should make for an interesting game!