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Canucks' roster cuts loom with Boeser & Fantenberg on the road to recovery |
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One more sleep until the Vancouver Canucks announce the roster decisions that will set the team's opening-night lineup for Wednesday night, when the team kicks off its 50th-anniversary season in Edmonton against the Oliers.
The deadline for teams to submit their final rosters is Tuesday at 2 p.m. PT. Players who require waivers need 24 hours to clear, so they must be assigned no later than Monday.
The Canucks are off on Sunday, and no players have been placed on waivers this weekend.
The team had a full practice on Saturday, which included the return of Tyler Motte to the main lineup after he missed the last two preseason games. Brock Boeser and Oscar Fantenberg also hit the ice, although both players were outfitted in green non-contact jerseys.
First, the lines...
The defense looks pretty much like what we expected — presumably with Guillaume Brisebois sticking around while Fantenberg goes through his concussion protocol.
The forward picture is still as muddy as ever.
On the surface, a first-line promotion for Adam Gaudette seems like it should be a positive for him, but I'm not so sure. To me, it reads more like Brisebois' situation — a waiver-exempt player slotting in for an injured regular — in this case, Brock Boeser.
And here's some clarification on Boeser's status. Sounds like he's coming along as well as could be expected and has a real crack at being ready for opening night.
Line two makes perfect sense: Pearson-Horvat-Miller. That's what we've been expecting.
On line three, there's no surprise seeing Brandon Sutter in the middle. Josh Leivo is on the left — and also worked on PP1 on Saturday, so he seems safe. And there's the prodigal son, Jake Virtanen, in what looks like a pretty secure spot on the right side.
On line four, Jay Beagle is slotted into the middle — also no surprise. And Tyler Motte makes perfect sense as his right winger. But Loui Eriksson and Tim Schaller shared the left-side duties — and that left Sven Baertschi skating with Nikolay Goldobin as an extra.
I feel like Goldy's fate is pretty much sealed at this point, but I'd be shocked if we saw Baertschi's name on the waiver wire on Monday rather than Schaller or Eriksson. Admittedly, those two were both not-too-bad as bottom-six players in preseason. Loui's 30-goal days certainly seem to be behind him, but he can still grind and do those infamous 'little things.' There are also some fancystats that suggest Schaller and Beagle are better together than apart.
Baertschi doesn't really make sense as a bottom-six guy. Despite a pretty solid preseason and that nice chemistry he showed with Adam Gaudette, is he the guy who will end up getting squeezed out in the numbers game?
Meanwhile, down in Utica, the Comets have made their first round of cuts after their two-game preseason series against the Binghamton Devils this weekend.
The Comets dominated on home ice with a 6-1 win on Friday, then dropped a 4-3 decision in Binghamton on Saturday.
The goals on Friday came from Jonah Gadjovich, Dylan Sadowy, Francis Perron, Justin Bailey, Aaron Thow, and Matt Iacopelli. Mikey DiPietro surrendered the only goal as he split the netminding duties with Jake Kielly.
On Saturday, the Comets got out to an early lead but surrendered three power-play goals in the loss. Zane McIntyre went the distance in net and the goals were scored by Matt Petgrave, Francis Perron (again), and Carter Camper.
Nine players were re-assigned on Sunday:
The goalie Kielly and skaters Zach Frye, Aaron Thow, Tanner Sorenson and Dylan Sadowy have all been sent to the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL. Matt Petgrave was loaned to the Brampton Beast of the ECHL and Gregg Burmaster, Ian Edmondson and Matt Iacopelli were released from their professional tryouts.
The Comets' regular season opens on the road next Saturday, back in Binghamton.
Finally — over the last few days, we've seen a flurry of new deals for that group of young RFAs who drew so much attention over the summer.
We've ended up with a range of terms and AAVs, so here's a quick summary.
Mitch Marner - 6 years - $10,893,000
Mikko Rantanen - 6 years - $9,250,000
Kyle Connor - 7 years - $7,142,857
Matthew Tkachuk - 3 years - $7,000,000
Ivan Provorov - 6 years - $6,750,000
Brayden Point - 3 years - $6,750,000
Patrik Laine - 2 years - $6,750,000
Brock Boeser - 3 years - $5,875,000
Travis Konecny - 6 years - $5,500,000
Zach Werenski - 3 years - $5,000,000
Charlie McAvoy - 3 years - $4,900,000
Brandon Carlo - 2 years - $2,850,000
In the end, I'm not sure Mitch Marner's contract did turn out to be the rising tide that floats all boats — although maybe Mikko Rantanen wouldn't have gotten into the 9s without Marner's deal.
Players who opted for term did seem to come in with higher AAVs — especially interesting when you compare the Laine and Connor deals in Winnipeg. Other than Ivan Provorov, the defensemen didn't make out as well as the forwards — although, again, Provorov opted for longer term. Can't blame most of these young talents for wanting to wait until the new U.S. TV deal is signed to see where hockey-related revenues will be in a few years' time.
Now that the dust has settled, Boeser's contract looks like pretty fair value, doesn't it?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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