Vancouver Canucks sign Michael Leighton to 2-way contract, recall Sautner (jake virtanen)

jake virtanen

Vancouver Canucks sign Michael Leighton to 2-way contract, recall Sautner

By Carol Schram

Feb 19, 2019 • 2:07 pm

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The Vancouver Canucks are back home and enjoying a four-day break in their schedule before returning to action on Thursday in a crucial division matchup against the Arizona Coyotes.

Currently two points behind the Canucks in the Western Conference standings, Arizona dropped the first game of its Western Canada road trip on Monday afternoon in Calgary. They'll make up their game-in-hand on Tuesday night in Edmonton.

Elsewhere on Monday, Chicago and Colorado both won, so they've caught the Canucks at 59 points.

The race has been so tight this year that I haven't looked at the SportsClubStats site until today. According to them, Vancouver's playoff odds decreased only slightly after Monday's game action. They've got the Canucks pegged with a 20.3 percent chance of reaching the postseason, which seems about right to me. That's 1-in-5, and they're basically battling it out with four other teams: Minnesota, Chicago, Colorado and Arizona.

The Wild are still clinging to that second wild-card spot with 60 points but have been in a bit of a swoon lately — although their 2-5-3 record in their last 10 games gives them seven points during that stretch. That's the same as the Canucks, who have gone 3-6-1.

I think my money's on the Blackhawks. Though the odds still have them at just 14.3 percent, they're the team that's trending upward with an 8-2-0 record in their last 10, and should be getting No. 1 goaltender Corey Crawford back in the lineup soon. Apparently the math favours the Avalanche (43.2 percent), but I'll be surprised if that's how it turns out.

The Canucks are off the ice on Tuesday but will convene at the JW Marriott Parq this evening for their annual Dice & Ice charity gala.

Here's how the lines shook down at practice on Monday:

Later on Monday, Guillaume Brisebois was re-assigned to Utica — swapped for a different lefty.

Ashton Sautner, now 24, is a little more experienced than Brisebois. He played five games with the Canucks toward the end of last season, picking up two assists. He's 3-5-8 in 31 games with Utica this year, and returned to the lineup on February 8 after missing two months with a nasty facial injury.

Word is that he and Luke Schenn showed some nice chemistry in Utica during the Comets' recent hot stretch; perhaps we'll see them as a unit with the big club this week as well?

The Canucks also took care of another piece of Utica business on Tuesday, inking goaltender Michael Leighton to a two-way contract after his strong performance with the Comets during his PTO.

Leighton was brought in by the organization in mid-January after the Mike McKenna situation failed to work out as planned. He lost his first start in Utica but since the beginning of February, he has put together a personal six-game winning streak and won the trust of coach Trent Cull.

Now that he's officially signed, the Canucks were required to put him on waivers. Hopefully he clears.

Leighton's a good story. He's a survivor.

Drafted in 1999—the same year as the Sedins!—he'll turn 38 in May. He was a waiver pickup by the Philadelphia Flyers before he helped them reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2010. The Comets are his fifth AHL team in the last two years.

And from the some-things-never-change department: the Flyers' goaltending situation is still a convoluted mess. As of Tuesday, Philadelphia has *four* goalies on its main roster. So far, McKenna is still being protected from being put on waivers.

Now—as far as the trade deadline—most of the chatter around Vancouver is (still) around the prospect of acquiring a scoring winger.

I thought Ryan Spooner was supposed to be that guy! He slotted into the Josh Leivo spot with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser at practice on Monday, and onto the second power-play unit.

Andre Burakovsky's name has been swirling around for months and I can sort of understand why Marcus Johansson is also now in the mix; the New Jersey Devils are definitely sellers this year. But Johansson is 28 and is a UFA at the end of the year. The Canucks certainly have the cap space to take on his $4.58 million contract, but I would think there's a real contender out there who would want him more.

Johansson is healthy now but has had a rough ride during his two years in New Jersey. He played just 29 games last season and missed another 11 games earlier this season.

Finally, injury updates from Monday:

Also,

It's good to hear that Demko and Edler are back on the ice, but the sense is that neither will be ready to get back into the lineup by Thursday. As for Baertschi:

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