Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet provided an update on Carson Soucy, telling reporters (video link) that the blueliner is currently listed as week-to-week. The 29-year-old has missed close to a month with a hand injury sustained while blocking a shot. In his first season with the Canucks after signing a three-year, $9.75MM deal with them back in July, Soucy has six points and 39 blocked shots in 21 games while logging a career-high 17:25 per night. As things stand, the Canucks don’t have enough cap space to call anyone up from the minors so if someone else has to be promoted, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Soucy transferred to LTIR retroactively.
Canucks Rumors
Canucks Recall Arshdeep Bains, Assign Jett Woo To AHL
The Canucks made a pair of roster moves on Friday, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled forward Arshdeep Bains from AHL Abbotsford. In a corresponding move, defenseman Jett Woo was re-assigned to the AHL.
It’s the first career recall for Bains, who signed with Vancouver as an undrafted free agent two years ago. The 23-year-old is the top scorer for Abbotsford, notching nine goals and 30 assists, sitting a dozen points clear of second-place Max Sasson. Bains is expected to take the place of Dakota Joshua who is listed as week-to-week after injuring his hand in a fight on Tuesday.
As for Woo, his first NHL recall came back on Monday but it winds up being a short-lived one; the 23-year-old didn’t suit up with Vancouver during that time. Woo is on his second NHL contract having inked a one-year, two-way deal worth the league minimum at the NHL level. He has 16 points in 42 games so far this season, sitting just five points high of his career high set last season.
While Vancouver could have made an open roster spot available by placing Joshua on injured reserve, they didn’t have enough cap space to afford Bains’ recall on its own, resulting in Woo having to be sent down.
Nils Hoglander Fined By Department Of Player Safety
Largely expected today, the Department of Player Safety has fined Vancouver Canucks forward Nils Hoglander a total of $2,864.58 for high-sticking Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman last night, per a press release. The fine was the maximum allowable according to the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA.
Dakota Joshua Out With Injury
In the article specifically, Peng notes that the Vancouver Canucks had an interest in acquiring Labanc as recently as last offseason, but could not confirm if they still hold any desire for him, especially with some of their additions already this season. Nevertheless, if the Sharks are unable to find a taker for Labanc by the trade deadline, a strong finish to the season should certainly be a priority for him in the hopes of boosting his free-agency stock by the summer months.
- For their game tonight against the Detroit Red Wings, the Vancouver Canucks will be without valuable depth forward Dakota Joshua (X Link). Supplementary reporting indicates that Joshua has injured his hand by way of a fight coming on Tuesday against Mackenzie Entwistle of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Phil Kessel To Work Out For Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks announced today that unrestricted free agent forward Phil Kessel would be working out this week in Abbotsford, presumably with the Canucks AHL squad. Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin told the media that the three-time Stanley Cup champion would be taking reps in the Vancouver area in what could become a reunion of sorts between Kessel, head coach Rick Tocchet and much of the Canucks management group. Kessel, Jim Rutherford, Tocchet, and Allvin won two Stanley Cups together with the Pittsburgh Penguins and could be the favorites to do the same in Vancouver.
Kessel has surprisingly remained unsigned despite being the NHL’s reigning Iron Man. He sits just eight points shy of 1000 for his career and was still productive last season posting 14 goals and 22 assists in 82 games on his way to a third career Stanley Cup.
Kessel has remained adamant that he wanted to continue playing and it looks as though he could do so if things go right in Vancouver. The 36-year-old isn’t the offensive threat he once was, but he remains an excellent passer and should have enough in the tank to be a good depth scoring option and a power play specialist.
His best years came in Pittsburgh while Tocchet was an assistant coach for the Penguins. He and Kessel appear to share a special relationship, and it seems that Tocchet has always been able to help Kessel find another gear in his game. If Kessel can show he has enough left in the tank and sign a contract, it could add another redemption arc to the Phil Kessel story.
Canucks Move Carson Soucy To Injured Reserve, Recall Jett Woo
The Canucks have placed defenseman Carson Soucy on injured reserve with a hand injury, the team announced Monday. In a corresponding transaction, blue-liner Jett Woo was recalled from AHL Abbotsford.
Soucy, 29, has been out since Jan. 20, when he caught a puck to the hand off a shot from Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner. He’s missed Vancouver’s last seven games and is just over three weeks into a five-to-six-week recovery timeline, so the IR placement likely isn’t an indication of a setback in his return to the lineup and is instead a move to get Woo onto the roster. The Canucks can activate Soucy off IR at any time since he’s already missed more than seven days.
The 6-foot-5 left-shot defenseman has been hurt more than he’s played in his first season in British Columbia, now missing a combined 32 games with hand and lower-body injuries. He has two goals and six points with a +6 rating in 21 games after signing a three-year, $9.75MM contract in free agency.
This is Woo’s first NHL call-up after being cut from training camp three years in a row. The 23-year-old was exposed to waivers for the first time last October and passed through unclaimed.
A 2018 second-round pick, Woo inked a one-year, two-way extension worth $775K in the NHL and $100K in the AHL to remain a Canuck before completing his entry-level contract last summer. He will be an RFA with arbitration rights at the end of the season.
The former point-per-game player in the WHL hasn’t yet made his mark in Abbotsford, and his stat line this year doesn’t read much different from his first three pro campaigns. Through 42 games, the Winnipeg-born Woo has five goals, 16 points, and a -2 rating. He will not require waivers to return to the AHL if he stays on the roster for less than 30 days and plays less than 10 games.
Nikita Zadorov Receives Two-Game Suspension
After announcing a hearing just a few hours ago, the Department of Player Safety has made a quick ruling on Canucks defenseman Nikita Zadorov. The league announced (Twitter link) that the blueliner has been handed a two-game suspension for an illegal check to the head against Detroit forward Lucas Raymond.
The incident occurred early in the second period today with Zadorov receiving a match penalty on the play. As the league’s accompanying video notes, Zadorov’s hit satisfies both elements for an illegal check to the head with the head being the principal point of contact and the hit being avoidable; it was deemed that Zadorov’s hit was mistimed and that he needed to take a better angle to hit Raymond’s core.
With Vancouver being back in action on Sunday, the league needed to make a ruling fairly quickly. Zadorov will miss that contest against Washington as well as Tuesday’s game versus Chicago; he’ll be eligible to return on Thursday when they host Detroit in a rematch of today’s game. It’s the first suspension of Zadorov’s career and he will forfeit a little over $39K in salary, that money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Nikita Zadorov To Have Hearing For Illegal Hit To The Head
Vancouver Canucks defenseman Nikita Zadorov will have a hearing this evening for an illegal hit to the head on Detroit Red Wings winger Lucas Raymond. The hit came halfway through Vancouver’s Saturday loss to Detroit and earned Zadorov a match penalty. The 28-year-old hasn’t faced punishment from the Department of Player Safety in his career up to this point. He’s scored four points, all assists, through 27 games with the Canucks this season. He’s also played in 21 games and scored six points with the Calgary Flames
Zadorov is on pace to break his career-high in penalty minutes this season, now up to 83 penalty minutes – just 20 minutes short of the career-high he set in 2017-18 – with 30 games left on Vancouver’s schedule. His attendance in the box has become routine, with Zadorov’s 180 penalty minutes ranking higher than any other Flames player, including Milan Lucic and Andrew Mangiapane, over his three seasons with the team.
The Canucks traded for Zadorov in late November, sending Calgary a third and fifth pick. He’s stepped into a second-pairing role with his new club, playing primarily with Tyler Myers. Calgary and Vancouver have since swapped forwards Elias Lindholm and Andrei Kuzmenko, with Vancouver adding a first-round pick, conditional fourth-round pick, and two prospects. Lindholm has scored two goals in his first three games in Vancouver, playing on the team’s top line.
Canucks And Lindholm Not Talking Extension
Mike Harrington of Buffalo News Sports is reporting that Buffalo Sabres defenseman Erik Johnson isn’t looking to move on from the Sabres and has not approached management for a trade. The 35-year-old is a former Stanley Cup champion with the Colorado Avalanche and could be in demand according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Johnson was the 2006 first-overall pick, and although he never reached the levels scouts had predicted for him. He has remained a stable defensive defenseman and solid penalty killer throughout his career. He was a good offensive contributor early in his career but hasn’t topped 27 points in a year since the 2013-14 season.
Things could change for Johnson, but at this point, he told Harrington that his focus is on Buffalo, and he doesn’t want to abandon the team midseason. Johnson signed a one-year contract in the off-season as a free agent with an AAV of $3.25MM.
The Sabres entered the season with hopes of competing for a playoff spot but currently sit in 14th place in the Eastern Conference and are 10 points back of the Detroit Red Wings for the final playoff spot.
In other morning notes:
- Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic wrote today that newly acquired Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Lindholm and the team are both comfortable with waiting to see how he adjusts to the team and how the rest of the season and the playoffs go. It makes for both sides given that Lindholm is just four and a half months away from unrestricted free agency and the Canucks have to also consider a potential long-term extension for superstar Elias Pettersson. LeBrun adds that he believes the Canucks want to sign both players long-term and have coveted Lindholm for quite some time. The 29-year-old had an incredible debut with Vancouver, notching two goals in a 3-2 win. However, his second game was a disaster as Lindholm went -4 in a 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins.
- Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic wrote today that he believes that the injury to Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev could prompt Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois to enter the market for a defenseman as there is a possibility that Sergachev could be out for the rest of the regular season due to injury. If the young defenseman is done playing until the playoffs it would open the door for BriseBois to go $8.5 million to go above the cap on LTIR. The issue Tampa Bay might run into is having the assets to make the move given that they don’t have a first-round pick until 2026 and their farm system is one of the worst in the NHL.
Vancouver Canucks Interested In Phil Kessel
In a report today, Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic mentions that the Vancouver Canucks are one of the teams checking in on the three-time Stanley Cup champion. If Kessel can regain form relatively quickly, the Canucks could field one of the deepest teams entering the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, especially after having acquired Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov this year via trade. It is important to note that from 2015-17, Kessel played under the current Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet when Tocchet was an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2014-2017.