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Vancouver Canucks lose Leipsic & acquire Leivo, World Juniors, Superskills |
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The Vancouver Canucks have finally hit the week where they can take a bit of a breath while other teams start catching up with their league-high 29 games played.
The Canucks' homestand will wrap up with games against the now-sagging Minnesota Wild on Tuesday and the still-strong Nashville Predators on Thursday. The Wild are riding a three-game losing streak after dropping a 5-3 decision at home to Toronto on Saturday while the Predators start the week as the top team in the Western Conference but have been hit hard by injuries: P.K. Subban, Viktor Arvidsson, Kyle Turris and Filip Forsberg are all out of the lineup.
The Preds will host Buffalo on Monday before heading out west to visit the Canucks and Flames later this week.
In Sunday's blog, I confidently predicted that the Canucks would have no trouble sliding Brendan Leipsic down to Utica on the waiver wire, but I was wrong. With Ilya Kovalchuk now projected to miss four weeks with an ankle issue, the Los Angeles Kings added their second forward in as many days by claiming Leipsic on the heels of Nikita Scherbak's acquisition on Sunday.
Scherbak has played just five games this year—all with the Laval Rocket of the AHL, when he was sent down in early November for a conditioning stint. He played his last game on November 9 before being placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, and the Russian will also need to complete some visa paperwork before he can report to his new U.S.-based team, so he won't be able to jump into the lineup immediately, like Leipsic will. The undermanned Kings iced just 11 forwards along with seven defensemen in their 2-0 shutout win over Carolina on Sunday.
Though the Leipsic move was expected to clear space for Jay Beagle's return to the Canucks' roster, Jim Benning followed up by making a trade on Monday morning, picking up forward Josh Leivo from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Utica Comets stalwart Michael Carcone.
Leivo, 25, was originally selected in the third round by the Leafs in the 2011 draft and has 14-14-28 in 84 career NHL games with the Leafs, including 4-2-6 in 27 games this year—better numbers than Leipsic's 2-3-5 in 17 games. At 6'2" and 192 pounds, Leivo has more size than the 5'10" Leipsic but is not an especially physical player. He has 22 hits and a career-high seven penalty minutes so far this season while Leipsic has 11 hits and two penalty minutes.
I suspect the key to the deal for Vancouver is Leivo's defensive game. He's a plus-seven, which compares very favourably to Leipsic's minus-10.
In Toronto, Leivo got squeezed out of the lineup by the return of William Nylander. In Carcone, the Leafs are acquiring a player who does not require waivers to be added to the Marlies' roster. Undrafted out of the QMJHL, the Canucks signed Carcone as a free agent during the summer of 2016.
Carcone plays a feisty game despite being listed at just 5'10" and 170 pounds. This year, though, the 22-year-old was playing more of an offensive role—fourth in Comets scoring with 6-11-17 in 20 games, and just six penalty minutes.
Carcone played well in the Comets' five-game loss to the Marlies in the first round of the 2018 playoffs last spring, tied for second in team scoring with 1-3-4 in five games. That would certainly explain why Marlies' general manager Laurence Gilman would have had interest.
The shuffle makes room for Nylander on the Leafs' roster, but brings the Canucks back to 23 players on their NHL roster. Unless Beagle has had a setback and won't be ready to play on Tuesday after all—or if Erik Gudbanson is being moved to IR after missing the last three games with his neck issue—Jim Benning will need to make another move.
The only Canucks' players who are still on the roster and waiver exempt are Adam Gaudette, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.
I imagine we'll get some clarity from the Canucks at practice today. The team is scheduled to hit the ice at 11:30 at Rogers Arena.
One other note before I get to Sunday's SuperSkills results: Team Canada announced its 34-player roster for the World Junior Selection Camp on Monday morning.
As expected, Canucks prospect Michael DiPietro is one of three goaltenders. He has been named along with Ian Scott of Prince Albert and Matthew Villalta of the Soo Greyhounds. Villalta missed a couple of weeks in November when he suffered a flukey skate-cut injury when he got stepped on by an official while stretching during his warmup, but he has been back in action for the last 10 days or so.
The news is not so good for Canucks defense prospect Jett Woo—a right-side blueliner who didn't make the cut despite playing for Team Canada head coach Tim Hunter's Moose Jaw Warriors. Woo got beat out by his teammate Josh Brook, who missed the Summer Showcase due to injury, as well as other right-handers Evan Bouchard, Noah Dobson, Calen Addison, Ian Mitchell, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Cameron Crotty.
Woo is young, though—he doesn't turn 19 till next July, so while he won't be able to skate for Canada here in Vancouver, he will still be eligible for the 2020 World Juniors in the Czech Republic.
Finland also announced its roster on Monday, which does include Canucks defense prospect Toni Utunen:
Team USA has not yet made its roster announcement, but we're certainly expecting to see both Quinn and Jack Hughes on the list when it's released—most likely at some point this week.
Finally for today: SuperSkills results.
If you're a fan of Riverdale, you may want to watch the full stream from the on-ice portion of Sunday's event, since Archie Andrews himself (KJ Apa) was on hand for the festivities.
After Jacob Markstrom's unfortunate chariot race injury last season, there was a tweak to the format this year:
Jake Virtanen defended his title as the team's fastest skater by a healthy margin:
Bo Horvat also repeated as the accuracy champion:
And with Gudbranson sidelined, Elias Pettersson proved that you don't need to be a big guy to have a hard shot:
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