Thursday September 26 - Arizona Coyotes 4 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Adam Gaudette continued to make his case for inclusion on the opening-night roster as the Vancouver Canucks wrapped up their preseason with a 4-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
Skating on a line with Loui Eriksson and Sven Baertschi and putting in both penalty-killing and power-play time, Gaudette played 19:23 on Thursday, more than any other forward except Josh Leivo (19:53). He had just one shot attempt, which was blocked, went 11-for-18 for an impressive 61 percent in the faceoff circle and chipped in two hits, two blocks and a takeaway as well as this highlight-reel assist.
Gaudette and Jake Virtanen were the only Canucks players to appear in six of the team's eight preseason games. Gaudette finished with four goals and two assists and was a plus-two; Virtanen started hot in Calgary with his two-goal night but added just one assist in his five subsequent games, finishing with three points and an even plus-minus.
Gaudette's six points tied him for second in preseason team scoring with Elias Pettersson — pretty good company, although Petey only played four games.
Petey had six shot attempts on Thursday but his only point came off the secondary assist on the play that led to Micheal Ferland's first goal in a Canucks uniform, which opened the scoring 80 seconds into the first period. Petey and Leivo did the dirty work on the forecheck to get the puck into dangerous territory, and Ferland did his bit by going to the net and sticking with the play.
This was a nice moment along the boards for Petey, too.
Alex Edler wrapped up preseason atop the Canucks' scoring race with seven points in four games — still tied with Max Pacioretty for tops in the league, with a few more games still to be played through the weekend.
Gaudette's six points put him on a tier with Mat Barzal, Jack Eichel, Brady Tkachuk and Sammy Blais and Klim Kostin of St. Louis, as well as Pettersson. Pretty elite company!
The Canucks won't need to submit their final 23-man roster to the league until Tuesday, so they'll take their time making these final crucial roster decisions.
On Friday, they announced that four more players were headed to Utica. Forward Zack MacEwen and defenseman Jalen Chatfield are waiver-exempt. Forward Tyler Graovac and goaltender Richard Bachman have now been placed on waivers, with the intention of sliding them through to the AHL team.
Who's still here? Once again, let me refer you to the updated depth chart created by CanucksAbbyFan2:
The Canucks have 16 forwards and nine defensemen still in camp — not counting Antoine Roussel, who will start the season in injured reserve, but including injured Brock Boeser and Oscar Fantenberg, whose return dates are not yet known.
If Boeser and Fantenberg start the year on IR, then just two more players need to be cut. If the pair are healthy, four bodies need to be moved.
Five years after he was drafted and heading into his third pro season, 22-year-old Guillaume Brisebois is sticking around a little longer. He finished with two assists and a plus-one in his four games, and looks like he has moved ahead of Ashton Sautner to first call-up status from the Utica blueline. Both are lefties, too.
Sautner did require waivers. The 25-year-old was re-assigned last Saturday, pointless and a minus-four in three games played.
While I'm thrilled to see how Gaudette's game has evolved since last season and how he's starting to work the kind of magic that earned him the Hobey Baker Award when he played at Northeastern, I also don't have a problem with the Canucks using his waiver-exempt status to make the easy move before Tuesday. I don't think either Jake or Goldy has done anywhere near enough to guarantee themselves a roster spot, but I understand how tough it is to cut the cord on a former first-round draft pick — especially if you're risking the possibility of losing them for nothing.
At the moment,
CapFriendly is showing six teams over the salary-cap with 23-man rosters, and two more with 24 players — as well as the Canucks with 26. I don't think this necessarily means we'll see any desperate GMs forced to move players out, though. The Leafs' $94 million total includes more than $13 million in salaries for players on LTIR, and I've heard that they'll be cobbling together extra space through the year by papering players back and forth to the Marlies on off days, reporting rosters below the 23-man limit whenever they can.
Every year, teams unearth more workarounds to maximize their cap space, so I suspect even the clubs that are close to the ceiling have strategies to manage their rosters through the season. Still, it'll be interesting to see if anybody pulls the trigger on a trade before next Wednesday, or if any waiver acquisitions get snapped up.
As far as I know, no waiver claims have been made yet during this preseason. That could change during final cuts, although it's hard for every team to find an open roster spot for a waiver acquisition when they're dealing with making cuts of their own.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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