Pacific Notes: Fowler, Garbutt, Demko, Coyotes
After being heavily mentioned in trade rumors over the offseason, Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler is off to a strong start this year with 17 points (7-10-17) through 28 games. As Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register notes, head coach Randy Carlyle has certainly taken notice, stating that Fowler is as important to Anaheim as Brent Burns (San Jose) and Erik Karlsson (Ottawa) are to their respective clubs, certainly high praise given the stature of those other blueliners.
Not only is Fowler leading the way offensively from the back end, he’s averaging a career high 23:58 per game of ice time, including regular minutes on the top power play and penalty kill.
While it has been speculated that Fowler and his $4MM cap hit would have to be moved for salary cap reasons, the long-term concussion for fellow blueliner Simon Despres has given the Ducks enough wiggle room for the time being. Even when he returns (which isn’t likely to happen for quite a while yet), he’s too valuable to Anaheim for them to realistically consider dealing him any time soon.
Still with Anaheim, after clearing waivers on Friday, forward Ryan Garbutt has been assigned to their AHL affiliate in San Diego, the team announced.
Other news from the Pacific Division:
- With goaltender Ryan Miller leaving Thursday’s game with what is believed to be a lower body injury, the team announced via Twitter that they have recalled top prospect Thatcher Demko from Utica of the AHL. Demko is off to a decent start in his first professional season after spending three years at Boston College. He has a 7-5-1 record in 14 appearances with a 2.59 GAA and a .909 SV%.
- The Coyotes announced that they have recalled center Laurent Dauphin and defenseman Anthony DeAngelo from their AHL affiliate in Tucson. Dauphin has played in 18 games with Arizona so far this season, notching a goal and an assist while DeAngelo made a strong impression in his first call-up last month, picking up seven points (2-5-7) in just 11 games. Dauphin’s recall comes on the heels of Max Domi being placed on injured reserve.
Vancouver Unwilling To Move Top Prospects For Short-Term Help
While Vancouver GM Jim Benning is looking to make a move to improve his struggling Canucks team – they’ve lost nine straight games following tonight’s game against the Islanders – his options are limited due to an unwillingness to part with any top prospects or core players, writes Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province. Benning explained his rationale to not consider using what would be his best trade assets:
“We’re in a transition period and that’s why I’m looking at different things. If it makes sense, we’ll look at it, but I’m not moving our Grade-A prospects.”
Vancouver’s ‘Grade-A’ prospects include goaltender Thatcher Demko who is considered the goalie of the future and is just beginning his pro career and recent first round picks Olli Juolevi and Brock Boeser who are at the junior and collegiate levels respectively. Kuzma adds that top draft picks are also off the table as well.
One player who has received a lot of interest is defenseman Chris Tanev. However, Benning ruled out any ideas of trading him at this time:
“We’ve rebuilt our defence over the course of the last two years and we have some depth. Tanev is a big part of our group and we’re not looking to move him. Chris is still young (26) and one of our better defencemen and you saw the other night (Saturday) when Tanev and Edler didn’t play.”
Tanev, who is currently out of the lineup with a foot issue, has a desirable contract for a top four blueliner with a cap hit of $4.45MM through the 2019-20 season. He recently returned to Vancouver to be re-evaluated and there is no timetable for his return.
In the meantime, with seemingly limited trade options at the moment, the Canucks will continue to hope that players like Loui Eriksson (zero goals), Sven Baertschi (zero goals), Jake Virtanen (zero goals), and Brandon Sutter (one goal) can snap their respective scoring droughts and get Vancouver back into the win column.
[Related: Canucks Depth Chart]