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Victor Mancini

Vancouver Canucks Recall Victor Mancini, Place Thatcher Demko On IR

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6:01 PM: The Canucks officially announced the roster moves.  Demko’s placement is retroactive to February 8th, meaning he’ll be eligible to be activated at any time.

3:02 PM: According to the team’s play-by-play radio commentator Brendan Batchelor, the Vancouver Canucks have recalled defenseman Victor Mancini from their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks. Vancouver will open up a spot on the active roster for Mancini by placing netminder Thatcher Demko on the injured reserve.

Demko’s placement on the IR will likely be made retroactive to February 8th. He left the Canucks’ game against the Toronto Maple Leafs after only 10 minutes due to a lower-body injury. During the 4 Nations Face-Off break it was announced that Demko wouldn’t join the team on their current five-game road trip and his recovery timeline is considered week-to-week.

It’s becoming somewhat of a lost season for the eight-year netminder. Due to lingering injury issues from the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, Demko’s 2024-25 debut was delayed until December 10th. He hasn’t been inspiring when healthy either managing a 6-6-3 record in 17 starts with a .891 save percentage and 2.87 goals-against average.

The newfound injury concerns are especially unfortunate when considering Demko’s season last year. The San Diego, CA native was instrumental in Vancouver’s return to the postseason posting a 35-14-2 record in 51 starts with a .918 SV% and 2.45 GAA. His 21.2 Goals Saved Above Average according to Hockey Reference accounts for 82.8% of his total GSAA throughout his career.

Demko’s future in British Columbia became even cloudier yesterday when the Canucks’ signed fellow netminder Kevin Lankinen to a five-year extension. Lankinen has been objectively better for Vancouver this season and his new contract will run four years longer than Demko’s current deal with the team.

Meanwhile, the freshly acquired Mancini could debut with the Canucks this evening. He’s tallied one assist in five games in AHL Abbotsford since being acquired from the New York Rangers as a part of the package for J.T. Miller.

Vancouver may still need an injury replacement for Quinn Hughes during tonight’s contest and Mancini would have to battle defenseman Elias Pettersson for that role. Pettersson has proven better defensively in limited action but Mancini has outscored him with one goal and four assists throughout 15 games with the Rangers.

Canucks Recall Linus Karlsson, Assign Victor Mancini To AHL

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The Canucks have tweaked their roster for their final game before the break.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled forward Linus Karlsson from AHL Abbotsford and have assigned defenceman Victor Mancini to Abbotsford.

Karlsson has been recalled now four times this season.  In his first three stints, the 25-year-old played in a total of nine games with Vancouver, picking up a goal in just under 10 minutes a night of playing time.  While offense has been hard to come by at the NHL level – he has just six points (all goals) in 82 career NHL appearances – that hasn’t been the case in the minors.  With Abbotsford, Karlsson has a dozen goals and six assists in 17 outings after recording 60 points in as many games last season with them.  Despite the promotion, he did not suit up against Toronto.

As for Mancini, he was one of the pieces of the recent J.T. Miller trade and was brought up earlier this week although he didn’t see any game action with Vancouver.  The 22-year-old played in 15 games with the Rangers earlier this season, recording five points while logging a little more than 15 minutes a night, solid numbers for his first taste of NHL action.  Mancini also has 23 AHL appearances on the campaign, all with New York’s affiliate in Hartford where he has 10 points.  Mancini should get a chance to make his debut with Abbotsford on Tuesday against San Diego. He’ll likely be joined by Karlsson for that one with the forward likely to be sent back down following tonight’s game.

Canucks Activate Kiefer Sherwood

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The Vancouver Canucks have activated forward Kiefer Sherwood off of injured reserve. Sherwood has missed Vancouver’s last four games with an undisclosed injury. His return brings some sense to Vancouver assigning Aatu Raty and, after he cleared waivers, Phillip Di Giuseppe to the minor leagues.

Sherwood is expected to return to the lineup in Sunday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. He’ll join a lineup full of new faces, including recent trade acquisitions Marcus Pettersson, Victor Mancini, and Filip Chytil. Sherwood should maintain his role on the team’s third line despite the lineup shuffle. He’s been one of the brightest performers in Vancouver’s bottom-six, boasting 13 goals and 21 points in 47 games this season. Sherwood has also recorded a staggering 273 hits – while no other Canuck has managed even 100 (Noah Juulsen has 99). In fact, Sherwood’s lofty hit totals lead the entire NHL by nearly 80 hits – with Philadelphia’s Garnet Hathaway ranked second with 197 hits. So long as he maintains his current hit pace, Sherwood is on track to finish the season with 453 hits – which would stand as an NHL record.

Sherwood has doubled down on the role of goal-scoring wrecking-ball after recording 10 goals, 27 points, and 234 hits in 68 games with the Nashville Predators last season. He seems to be finding plenty of comfort in his first year with the Canucks, sat just seven points shy of surpassing his career-high in scoring from last year. This news sets him up to continue pursuing new scoring heights, and the hit record, in a Canucks roster with plenty of minutes opened up by the trading of top forward scorer J.T. Miller.

Canucks Recall Victor Mancini

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The Vancouver Canucks have moved to get the full benefits of their recent trade by recalling defenseman Victor Mancini from the minor leagues. The Canucks acquired Mancini alongside centerman Filip Chytil and a protected 2025 first-round draft pick from the New York Rangers on Friday in exchange for J.T. Miller, Erik Brannstrom, and prospect Jackson Dorrington. Miller was a late scratch in Vancouver’s Friday game and made his second debut with the Rangers on Saturday – netting two goals on six shots. Sunday’s game against Detroit will mark Chytil and Mancini’s first chance to debut with their new club.

A move to Vancouver will mark some of the first Canadian games of Mancini’s career. He grew up playing youth hockey across Michigan, before briefly joining the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede and U.S. National Team Development Program in 2018-19. He moved to Sweden for his age-17 and age-18 seasons – 2019-20 and 2020-21 – joining Frolunda HC’s youth program and becoming the first non-Swede to captain the U20 team in his latter season. Mancini scored 24 points across 57 games with Frolunda’s U20 club, which wasn’t enough to convince teams to draft the stocky defender in his first years of draft eligibility – 2020 and 2021. That prompted a return to the United States, where Mancini was finally able to earn a fifth-round selection in 2022 after a strong freshman season at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He played one more year with the Mavericks before turning pro with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. Mancini worked his way into an NHL debut earlier this season. Over the last two years, he’s totaled five points in 15 NHL games and 13 points in 30 AHL games.

Mancini is the son of prolific USA Hockey manager Robert Mancini. The eldest Mancini began his hockey career as an assistant coach with Lake Superior State University and Ferris State University from 1985 to 1992, then elevated to Michigan Tech’s head coaching role for the next four seasons. He stepped down from collegiate coaching in 1996 and began serving as an assistant coach, director of player personnel, and eventually a head coach for Team USA at U17, U18, and U20 tournaments – as well as joining the team at the World Championship in 1997 and 1998. He then took on scouting with the Edmonton Oilers for four years, became the general manager and head coach of the Saginaw Spirit  for three years, returned to Edmonton as a development coach, then moved to South Africa to coach the country’s men’s national team for four years. He supported South Africa’s climb to Division 2B, then operated as Romania’s U20 GM in 2018. Robert has since retired from his management career, but now gets to watch his only son suit up for what used to be his division rival.

Victor Mancini will likely slot into Vancouver’s third pairing, competing with Derek Forbort for minutes. That would slot him immediately behind fellow new acquisition Marcus Pettersson, who will also make his Canucks debut on Sunday. The duo are both welcome depth behind superstar defender and Hart Trophy candidate Quinn Hughes, who has dealt with nagging injuries throughout the season.

Rangers Acquire J.T. Miller From Canucks

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Trade discussions between the Rangers and Canucks regarding J.T. Miller have been off and on in recent weeks but a deal is now complete.  Per announcements from both teams, New York has acquired Miller along with defensemen Erik Brannstrom and Jackson Dorrington from Vancouver in exchange for center Filip Chytil, defenseman Victor Mancini, and a protected 2025 first-round pick.  The pick is protected in the top-13 this year and if it doesn’t convey this year, the Canucks will instead receive New York’s unprotected 2026 first-rounder.  Structuring the pick like that will encumber the Rangers from moving that 2026 selection in another trade later on.

Miller waived his no-move protection to facilitate the swap, ending what had been a rocky last several weeks for the 31-year-old.  There has been speculation of an internal rift between Miller and center Elias Pettersson, something that team president Jim Rutherford confirmed earlier this week. As a result, Vancouver has been engaging in trade discussions involving both players for quite some time now.

Miller returns to his first NHL team with the Rangers having drafted him 15th overall back in 2011.  He spent parts of six seasons with them, recording 172 points in 341 games before being moved to Tampa Bay in 2018.  He spent parts of two years with them before Vancouver acquired Miller in the 2019 offseason and since then, his career has taken off.

After only recording more than 60 points just once in his career before joining Vancouver, Miller surpassed the point per game mark in four of his first five seasons with them; the only time he didn’t reach at least 70 points was the shortened 2020-21 campaign.  Along the way, he signed a seven-year, $56MM contract that runs through the 2029-30 campaign, meaning New York will be adding another pricey contract to their books with an $8MM AAV; Daily Faceoff’s Seravalli reports (Twitter link) that Vancouver is not retaining salary on Miller’s contract.

But things haven’t gone quite so well for Miller this season.  His offensive numbers – though still respectable – are down as he has nine goals and 26 assists in 40 games so far.  He has just three tallies in his last 24 outings, however, and two of those came in one game.  That drop in performance certainly didn’t help his trade value which likely contributed to the delay in getting this done.

Even with the drop-off in performance this year, Miller will still represent a sizable upgrade on Chytil in terms of role and production.  He’ll give them a third veteran presence down the middle behind Mika Zibanejad, a duo that will be around for a while as Zibanejad is also inked through the 2029-30 campaign.  Vincent Trocheck is also in the mix, signed through the 2028-29 season so they now have plenty of stability at that position for the foreseeable future.

As for the other pieces heading to New York, Brannstrom was once a highly-touted prospect after being a first-round pick for Vegas back in 2017.  However, his offensive game – his calling card growing up – hasn’t quite materialized in the pros and he has bounced around since then; this will be his third team of the season after spending training camp with Colorado before being moved to Vancouver.  Brannstrom has eight points in 28 NHL games this year but cleared waivers earlier this month and had been with AHL Abbotsford before the swap.  The 25-year-old has a $900K cap hit (which wouldn’t count against the cap if he remains in the minors for New York) and will be a restricted free agent with salary arbitration rights this summer.

Dorrington, meanwhile, was a sixth-round pick by Vancouver in 2022, going 176th overall.  He has spent the past three seasons at Northeastern University and has 10 points in 23 games for the Huskies in 2024-25.  Dorrington will have one year of college eligibility remaining after this season so he could be a near-term addition to New York’s farm system.

Chytil is the headliner of the swap for the Canucks in terms of the players they’re getting back.  The 25-year-old was originally expected to be part of New York’s long-term plans down the middle after they made him the 21st pick in 2017.  However, Chytil has dealt with considerable concussion issues throughout his career which has caused him to miss significant time, including 72 games just last season.

However, Chytil isn’t too far removed from his best offensive season when he collected 22 goals and 23 assists in 72 games back in 2022-23, solid second-line production.  He’s not too far off that pace this year either as he has 11 goals and nine helpers through 41 appearances.  He’s averaging less than 15 minutes a game this season but if he lands on the second line behind Pettersson, it’s possible that Chytil could be in line for a bit of a bigger role with his new team.  For his career, he has 164 points in 378 games.

Vancouver will be taking on a multi-year commitment with Chytil as well although he isn’t signed quite as long as Miller.  He has a $4.4375MM cap charge on his contract through the 2026-27 season and will be an unrestricted free agent at its expiration.  Accordingly, a big portion of this trade for the Canucks will be some increased salary cap flexibility moving forward.

As for Mancini, the 22-year-old is in the first season of his entry-level contract after wrapping up his college career last season.  He has played in 15 games with the Rangers this year, picking up a goal and four assists in a little over 15 minutes a night before being sent back to AHL Hartford last month to get more playing time.  In 23 games with the Wolf Pack, he has three goals and seven assists.  If he isn’t recalled directly to Vancouver, Mancini stands to be one of their top recall options whenever injuries arise.

From a salary cap perspective, the Rangers still have ample cap space to work with as PuckPedia puts them with a little over $3.5MM in projected cap room thanks to their early-season trade of Jacob Trouba.  Meanwhile, PuckPedia pegs Vancouver with a little less than $2.7MM in space which gives them some breathing room to try to bank some extra flexibility between now and the trade deadline to try to add to their roster and turn around their recent struggles.

For the production and role that Miller has had for most of his time with Vancouver, this return is on the low side but the internal rift clearly became too much, resulting in the Canucks taking a below-market return.  Nonetheless, if Chytil can do well with his new team and the Canucks properly use their extra draft, prospect, and cap capital, they could still come out of this in decent shape.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported that talks between the two sides about Miller were intensifying and was first with Brannstrom and Dorrington’s inclusions.  TSN’s Farhan Lalji originally reported Chytil being in the swap.  Larry Brooks of the New York Post was first with the details on the pick protection.

Photos courtesy of Imagn Images.

Rangers Recall Matt Rempe, Assign Victor Mancini To AHL

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The Kaapo Kakko swap wasn’t the only transaction the Rangers made today.  Not long after the trade was made official, the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Matt Rempe from AHL Hartford while re-assigning defenseman Victor Mancini to the Wolf Pack.

Rempe made his presence felt down the stretch last season and earned a spot with New York in training camp.  However, the 22-year-old didn’t play much early on and since he’s still waiver-exempt, the team has elected to largely keep him in the minors this season, allowing him to get more playing time while playing a bigger role than he has typically had with the big club.

With the Rangers, Rempe has been limited to just four games this season where he has been held off the scoresheet although he has seven hits and seven penalty minutes in just 6:26 of playing time per night, an uptick from the 5:38 he played last night.  In Hartford, he has suited up 18 times, picking up three goals and two assists along with 22 penalty minutes.

As for Mancini, the 22-year-old is in his first professional season after wrapping up his college career at the University of Nebraska-Omaha last year.  Ideally, New York’s preference would have been for him to play big minutes in the minors but a strong early showing down there plus a need to help their back end has resulted in him primarily playing for the Rangers.  With the addition of William Borgen, they can now allow Mancini to get that bigger playing time in Hartford.

Mancini has played in 15 games with New York so far this season, picking up a goal and four assists while logging 15:05 per night of playing time.  He has also played in six games with the Wolf Pack, recording five points.  His cap hit is $50K higher than Rempe’s, allowing them to offset a small portion of the extra $300K pro-rated that they took on in the Kakko-Borgen swap.

Latest on Jacob Trouba, Rangers Recall Victor Mancini

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Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweeted that the New York Rangers are weighing several options when it comes to defenseman Jacob Trouba. The team would like to trade their captain and have already said he won’t play this evening, but Trouba does hold a modified no-trade clause and can block a trade to certain teams. Friedman indicates that if Trouba does not waive his no-trade the Rangers have said that they will waive the 30-year-old.

Friedman acknowledges in his tweet that New York is playing “Hardball” with Trouba, but it is not an unprecedented situation and has happened before. Nothing is confirmed at this point, but it does appear that Trouba will be on the move one way or another in the coming days.

Trouba has one year left on his contract after this season with a cap hit of $8MM. However, he is owed just $6MM in salary for next season. The Rochester, Michigan native has dressed in 24 games this year, posting just six assists. He has averaged exactly 20 minutes in ice time per game and has struggled at even strength, particularly in the possession department, where his CF% is just 45.5%.

Trouba’s play has been an issue for several years now but became a major story in last year’s playoffs when he found himself demoted to the third pairing and was exposed as a liability despite being given sheltered minutes.

In a corresponding story, the New York Rangers announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Victor Mancini from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League. Mancini has dressed in ten NHL games this season for the Rangers, tallying a goal and three assists. The 22-year-old recorded his first NHL goal earlier this year against the Detroit Red Wings.

In the AHL, Mancini has posted two goals and three assists in six games and is coming off a three-point game on Wednesday night against Bridgeport.

Rangers Recall Brett Berard, Ruhwedel And Mancini Assigned To AHL

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The New York Rangers have recalled forward Brett Berard from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League and have assigned defensemen Victor Mancini and Chad Ruhwedel to the AHL.

A former fifth-round pick in 2020, Berard will have an opportunity to make his NHL debut in just his second full season with the Wolf Pack after spending three seasons with Providence College of the NCAA. The 22-year-old had 25 goals and 23 assists in 71 AHL games last season and has produced better offensive numbers this season with seven goals and six assists in 16 AHL games thus far.

Going back to the AHL is Mancini, who himself is a former fifth-round pick (2022) and is in his second season of professional hockey, although he played just seven AHL games last season. The Hancock, Michigan native has dressed in ten NHL games for the Rangers this season and has produced decent offensive numbers with a goal and three assists while averaging 15:25 of ice time per game. Despite the offensive numbers, Mancini has been overwhelmed on the possession front, posting an abysmal 36.3 CF% at even strength.

Also headed to Hartford is veteran Ruhwedel. The former Stanley Cup champion has rarely seen AHL action since becoming an NHL regular in 2017-18. Ruhwedel played out a series of short-term one-way NHL contracts but had to settle for a two-way deal this past summer. This year the 34-year-old has played sparingly, with just one scoreless NHL appearance and seven AHL games.

The demotion of two defensemen to the AHL likely means that Zachary Jones will return to the Rangers lineup sooner rather than later.

Rangers Recall Victor Mancini

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The Rangers have recalled defenseman Victor Mancini from AHL Hartford, per the minor league’s transactions log. They returned center Jake Leschyshyn on loan to Hartford to keep their active roster at a maximum of 23 players.

After unexpectedly making the opening night roster, the 6’3″, 215-lb Mancini was sent to the minors last week after a run of four straight healthy scratches. Evidently, the stay-at-home righty has done enough to earn a second chance in the NHL after scoring once and logging an even rating in three games for Hartford.

Mancini, a fifth-round pick in 2022, is in his first full professional season after spending the last three years with the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The Michigan native had one goal and three assists with a +3 rating in his first nine NHL games earlier this season.

However, Mancini graded out quite poorly away from the scoresheet. Bolstered by a .948 SV% from his goalies while on the ice at even strength, the Rangers controlled just 35.4% of shot attempts and 34.5% of expected goals while Mancini was skating. Those are the worst possession numbers on the Blueshirts this season by a significant margin.

The Rangers already have an extra defenseman on the roster in Chad Ruhwedel, and no reported injuries. Mancini’s recall could be for a yet-to-be-disclosed injury issue, or it could just be to give the youngster another look on NHL ice.

Leschyshyn, 25, had been on the Rangers’ roster for the better part of the last week but did not play, sitting as a healthy scratch for three straight games. He was the club’s only extra healthy forward with Filip Chytil out, signaling that the latter may be available tomorrow against the Oilers after missing three games with an upper-body injury.

In 13 games with Hartford this season, Leschyshyn has one goal and three assists for four points with a -4 rating. He has just two goals and four assists for six points in 77 career NHL appearances and hasn’t played an NHL game since Jan. 11, 2024, against the Blues.

Rangers Recall Chad Ruhwedel, Assign Victor Mancini

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The New York Rangers have made a swap on defense, recalling veteran Chad Ruhwedel from, and assigning rookie Victor Mancini to, the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. Mancini has served as a healthy scratch for New York’s last four contests, and will now search for hardier ice time in the minor leagues.

Ruhwedel returns to the Rangers lineup after a brief stint in the minor leagues. He played in seven games for Hartford, recording two assists and four penalty minutes but otherwise failing to jump off the page. The stint was the longest Ruhwedel has had in the minor leagues since 2016-17, when he played in 28 games and scored 16 points for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He’s spent the time since serving as a stout seventh defender for the Pittsburgh Penguins and, thanks to a midseason trade last year, the Rangers. That’s been Ruhwedel’s role since he joined the NHL in 2012-13, when he signed with the Buffalo Sabres as an undrafted free agent. He’s gone on to total 365 appearances across 12 seasons, including this year thanks to one scoreless game in New York. Despite the long run in the league, Ruhwedel still sits one point shy of his 50th career NHL point.

While he searches for that, Mancini will look to continue his hot start to the season in the minor leagues. The 22-year-old recorded four points in the first nine NHL games of his career this season, and seemed capable of handling routine minutes on New York’s third pairing. But growing pains and lineup competition forced Mancini out of a spot, leaving him to build on the three assists he recorded in seven AHL games last year. New York originally drafted Mancini in the fifth round of the 2022 NHL Draft, following a strong freshman year at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He’d go on to total 23 points in 110 games with Nebraska-Omaha, turning pro at the end of the 2023-24 season. This assignment likely isn’t the end of Mancini’s NHL time this year, especially if he can breathe light into a Hartford team off to a menial start this season.

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