|
Vancouver Canucks waive Sam Gagner & Darren Archibald to set their roster |
|
|
|
|
|
Are Jay Beagle and Tim Schaller an upgrade over Sam Gagner and Darren Archibald?
That's essentially what the Vancouver Canucks' offseason has boiled down to.
To reach their 23-man opening-night roster limit, the Canucks placed Gagner and Archibald on waivers on Monday morning.
Though 28-year-old Archibald got into his first NHL games since the 2013-14 John Tortorella season last year, he was always in tough to make the Canucks' opening-night roster. It's funny—during preseason last year he was almost impossible to miss as he threw his body around and got into fights, and it was a bit of a disappointment when he got cut at the end of camp.
But he didn't bring that same gusto when he was recalled by the Canucks last February. In 27 games, he did average three hits a game, which put him near the top of the team, but after getting into two fights in his first five games, he finished out the year with just 14 penalty minutes. He didn't turn out to be the second coming of Derek Dorsett.
This year, Archibald took just two minor penalties in four preseason games, and went pointless. Green did use him on the penalty kill against Arizona in Kelowna on Saturday, but that spot will almost certainly be filled by Tyler Motte when the regular season begins.
Motte appeared in five preseason games, but didn't dress against the Coyotes. Credit to him for making the most of his opportunity when the odds were stacked against him due to the fact that he's waiver exempt until he dresses in one more NHL game. He used his ice time effectively, forechecked tenaciously and being a demon on the penalty kill.
Originally drafted in the fourth round by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013, Motte spent three years at Michigan, where he played with the likes of Kyle Connor, Zach Werenski and Dylan Larkin. He turned 23 in March and is playing out the last year of his entry-level contract, which pays him $925,000 at the NHL level.
The Canucks acquired Motte from the Columbus Blue Jackets at the 2018 trade deadline, along with Jussi Jokinen, in exchange for Thomas Vanek. At the time, the deal was widely derided. Turns out the Canucks turned Vanek into an asset after all!
As for Gagner—credit to the organization for being willing to waive a higher-salaried veteran. With two years left to go on a contract that pays him $3.15 million, Gagner is the team's fifth highest-paid forward.
With 10 goals and 31 points in 74 games with the Canucks last season, he ranked seventh in team scoring. That wasn't enough to compensate for his suspect defensive game, which left him ranked 11th among Vancouver forwards with an average of 15:07 of ice time per game. With an average of 2:02 of power-play time per game, he finished out the year with just three goals with the man advantage and 11 power-play points—a significant drop-off from the eight goals and 18 points he collected on the Columbus power play one year earlier.
Gagner's lone point in his four preseason games this year was his slick goal in Salt Lake City against the Kings last Monday—one where Drew Doughty didn't put up much of a fight, defensively.
Gagner started on a third line with Brandon Sutter and Darren Archibald on Saturday against Arizona. It was probably a bad sign for him when he swapped spots with Jake Virtanen midway through the game—and Jake was able to generate some chances when he was moved up.
I can't help but feel bad for Gagner's family: his wife is a prolific Instagrammer who has been enthusiastically documenting the family's west-coast life in Kitsilano since they came back to town last month. Gagner now has two young boys but this situation is not completely unfamiliar. The sixth-overall pick from 2007 cleared waivers as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers in December of 2015 and spent nine games with the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms before earning a recall about a month later.
Gagner's demotion also means that both Brendan Leipsic and Nikolay Goldobin stick with the big club. Leipsic, 24, scored once in preseason and Goldobin, who turns 23 next week, scored twice, so it looks like Travis Green sees enough potential to give the edge to those two younger players over the 29-year-old Gagner.
So here's how the Canucks will start the 2018-19 season:
FORWARD
Sven Baertschi
Jay Beagle
Brock Boeser
Loui Eriksson
Nikolay Goldobin
Markus Granlund
Bo Horvat
Brendan Leipsic
Tyler Motte
Elias Pettersson
Tim Schaller
Brandon Sutter
Jake Virtanen
Antoine Roussel (injured)
DEFENSE
Alex Biega
Michael Del Zotto
Alex Edler
Erik Gudbranson
Ben Hutton
Derrick Pouliot
Troy Stecher
Chris Tanev
GOAL
Jacob Markstrom
Anders Nilsson
We'll get a better idea of how Green will deploy his lines on opening night after today's practice at UBC, and we'll also hear from the GM:
To wrap up today—how concerned are you about the Canucks' 1-6-0 record in preseason?
Wins and losses aren't supposed to mean anything, but the Canucks' record was, in fact, the worst in the entire NHL this year. The teams that were close were New Jersey (1-2-2 in five games), Ottawa (2-4-0 in six games), Chicago (2-4-0 in six games) and L.A. (1-6-1 in eight games, with their only win coming against the Canucks in Salt Lake City—while the Canucks' only win came against the Kings at Rogers Arena).
I'm glad we'll see Elias Pettersson lighting it up this year and I hope we'll see Brock Boeser find his form again. But my gut feeling right now is that this season is going to be remembered as a post-Sedin transition year, and could very well turn out to be all about the #LoseForHughes campaign.
So by request, I'll leave you with this question—cribbed from Jan Levine's Rangers blog:
"Where do you think the *Canucks* will finish in the division, the conference and the league?"
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»