The Canucks season opener is less than a week away, but they’ll need to have their 23-man roster set by 2 PM on Tuesday. That means it’s time for the Canucks to make their final cuts.
After Saturday’s game against the Oilers, there were some rumblings from The Official Home of the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Canucksâ„¢ that the Canucks were about to keep Jayson Megna. Alex Auld suggested that . Others suggested that and be sent down to Utica.
The combination of those two roster moves would have roused some serious rabble. It would have investigative journalists checking into whether Jim Benning, Trevor Linden, and Travis Green invested in torch and pitchfork companies ahead of time. That would be some real insider trading — or insider-assigning-to-the-minors.
Fortunately for the sanity of Canucks’ fans, the Canucks put Megna and Michael Chaput on waivers Sunday morning. While they could still get called up this season, two of Willie Desjardins’ favourite Canucks will start the season as Comets. Also getting put on waivers? Goaltender Richard Bachman.
The biggest part of this news is that it means Brock Boeser and Jake Virtanen have almost certainly made the Canucks roster and will likely be in the opening night lineup next Saturday.
Canucks fans are certainly familiar enough with Megna and Chaput from last season. Both are capable depth forwards who can fill in on the fourth line. Chaput, in fact, was a decent fourth-line centre last season, when he was matched with Brendan Gaunce and Jack Skille.
Megna, meanwhile, could fill-in as a complementary winger on a defensive-minded line, using his speed to make up for the areas in which his game lacked. When helped by a possession-driving linemate like Markus Granlund, he held his own.
Both Megna and Chaput are eminently replaceable, however. They’re very good AHL players who can fill in at the NHL level when necessary, but it should never be necessary for either of them to play an entire season in the NHL.
The biggest issue last season wasn’t that they were bad, exactly, but that they were put into roles for which they were ill-suited. For some reason, both Megna and Chaput ended up on the Sedins’ wing on the first line for over 100 5-on-5 minutes last season. Megna even got time on both the first and second power play units.
Megna finished the season with 8 points. One of them, an assist, came on the power play. Chaput, in ten more games, had 9 points. Neither of them had any business playing with the Sedins except for the pre-game soccer juggling warm-up.
That brings the Canucks roster down to 25 players, not counting the injured Brendan Gaunce, Cole Cassels, and Ryan White. That leaves just two more cuts to go.
It comes down to one thing: do the Canucks want to carry 14 forwards or 8 defencemen? If 14 forwards, that means Brock Boeser, Jake Virtanen, and Darren Archibald have all made the team (and Archibald will need an NHL contract). If 8 defencemen, then a forward, like Archibald, will need to be cut.
If the Canucks go with 8 defencemen, then it comes down to a battle between Andrey Pedan and Alex Biega. That decision hasn’t been finalized, as neither player has been put on waivers. If they go with 14 forwards, then both are likely to get waived and sent down.
Here is the roster as it stands right now:
Sven Baertschi - Bo Horvat - Brock Boeser
Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Thomas Vanek
Loui Eriksson - Markus Granlund - Sam Gagner
Jake Virtanen - Brandon Sutter - Derek Dorsett
Darren Archibald - Alexander Burmistrov
Brendan Gaunce (inj) - Cole Cassels (inj)
Ryan White (PTO and inj)
Alex Edler - Chris Tanev
Ben Hutton - Troy Stecher
Michael Del Zotto - Erik Gudbranson
Andrey Pedan - Patrick Wiercioch
Alex Biega
Jacob Markstrom
Anders Nilsson
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