The Canucks made their final training camp cuts Monday, making room for preseason standouts Jared McCann, Ben Hutton and Jake Virtanen by placing Alex Biega, Linden Vey and Frank Corrado on waivers.
That's right. It's straight to the FREE pile for the trio of Biega, Vey, and Corrado, a risky proposition, especially for the two defenders. Both Biega and Corrado can play, and while they didn't show enough to crack the Canucks' opening-night roster, one can imagine one or both of them on some other team's. Defenders -- especially the young, puck-moving kind -- are a hot commodity in this league. And even Linden Vey, who remains a young centre in an NHL that practically fetishizes young centres, could seem pretty appealing to both teams.
It's all a little reckless, really. During the Mike Gillis era, the Canucks would have found some clever way to make the same moves without exposing necessary assets to the waiver wire. , there was a cutesier option.Â
But this iteration of Canucks management is anything but cutesy. They're meat-and-potatoes. There's no time for artisinal salads -- take your arugula, your goat feta, and your craisins, and go back to Kitsilano. They feel no need to prove how much smarter they are than you. At times it's disappointing. I want Canucks' management to be smarter than me. They're running the team I like. But at times I find their lack of hubris admirable. Rather than giving Linden Vey untold opportunities, for instance, since they spent a second-round pick on him, they're willing to lose him for nothing just a year later. That's an open admission of fault, and it makes the seeming misstep a touch more forgiveable.
Of course, there's a chance the Canucks don't lose a single player to the wire. (Although if it's anything like the show The Wire, they're losing everybody.) Biega, Vey and Corrado may all be viable options, but amid a slough of waiver activity, it's possible they get lost. It's also possible the teams who might want one of these guys simply don't have the room to make a claim. After all, the waiver wire is full up because every team is flailing in an attempt to get down to the 23-man roster limit. For most clubs, now is hardly the time to be adding players.
Plus, it's hard not to be suspicious when someone is giving something good away for free. Why is it free? Is there something wrong with it? Is it haunted? Is Frank Corrado haunted? The answer is yes. I know you might want Frank Corrado, NHL teams, by you should know that he's just teeming with ghosts, and if you put in a claim, your locker room will be too. Do you really want a locker room full of ghosts? Ghosts are total locker-room cancers. They have no integrity or character.
If the Canucks get everybody through, this is a huge win. It means they were able to preserve their assets while still keeping their promise to the young kids: if you're good, we'll make room for you.
But speaking of huge wins, let's talk about the guys that made the team, and I know where you want to start: Adam Cracknell.
Very little ink has been spilled on Cracknell, but it now seems clear that he fit what the Canucks were seeking in a fourth-line centre better than anyone else in camp, including the incumbent Vey. He generated chances, he crashed and banged, and he was defensively responsible. No doubt the Canucks like the idea of him skating between Derek Dorsett and Brandon Prust. It's the fourth line Jim Benning has always dreamed of! Their corsi and goals against per sixty minutes are probably gonna be just pure crap, but every now and then they'll inspire their teammates by hitting someone really hard. Won't that be a treat?
And if they decide this is too much muscle, and a smallish, fourth-line pivot was the way to go after all, well, they still have Jared McCann. Poor Vey. In effect, he was replaced by the guy the Canucks want him to be (Cracknell), and a guy who, at 19, plays his game better than he does (McCann). There was no saving him.
The emergence of McCann and Virtanen could be a big win for the Canucks. These guys were only drafted a season ago. But by next season, they could have Horvat, McCann and Virtanen in expanded forward roles, and with two more seasons of the Sedins, at least, that's an impressively retooled core.
Finally, give it up for Ben Hutton, who was on almost nobody's radar when camp got underway, and now finds himself in the Canucks' top-six. He made the team with his play. Not because his contract fit, or because the Canucks used a high draft pick on him. He was just too good to dismiss. That's probably a cool feeling.
Plus he plays the same side as Luca Sbisa, so he may wind up being the catalyst for the team admitting they made a mistake with the Swiss defenceman -- pulled a Vey, as it were. Either that or he'll elevate Sbisa's play and they'll become a formidable, trustworthy, third-pairing. Don't laugh. Stop laughing. This isn't that type of blog.
