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Dryden Hunt, Phil Di Giuseppe Placed On Waivers

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Two more players have graced the waiver wire today, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Dryden Hunt of the New York Rangers and Phillip Di Giuseppe of the Vancouver Canucks are available for claim.

Di Giuseppe is coming off season-opening injured reserve, suggesting he is ready to return to action now that he’s found himself on waivers. If he clears, he’ll likely join the Abbotsford Canucks where he spent all of last season. The 29-year-old does have 201 NHL games under his belt, but with the recent injury it seems unlikely that he’ll be claimed.

Hunt on the other hand is more of an interesting story. The 26-year-old undrafted forward plays a physical game and never seems to be out of energy, attacking defenders and tracking down the puck every time he hits the ice. In 76 games with the Rangers last season he scored six goals and 17 points while delivering 153 hits and racking up 52 penalty minutes.

While there might not be a lot of offensive upside there, it’s easy to see why another team might want to add Hunt to the bottom-six mix, especially given the fact that he comes with a cap hit of just $762.5K. That number could fit into basically any team’s cap structure and even with some poor results in limited minutes this year, there are signs that he could be a benefit to clubs struggling to find a good mix on the fourth line.

With Sammy Blais returning, the Rangers needed to clear some space, and might end up losing Hunt in the process.

Canadian Notes: Price, Dermott, Wideman

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Rumors have swirled over the future of Carey Price’s career ever since the severity of his knee injury became apparent. Those rumors intensified today when Sportnet’s Eric Engels said Price was scheduled to speak with the media on October 24. However, Engels notes that this is not a retirement announcement as many people first thought when his media availability was reported.

Price and his $10.5MM cap hit remain on long-term injured reserve, and he’s not expected to play at all this season as he continues his recovery from his knee injury. Price played just five games last season after missing nearly the entire year, and he certainly won’t top that number in 2022-23. The future Hall of Fame goaltender still wants to resume his playing career if he can, and he does have four years remaining on his deal to make an improbable recovery.

Vancouver Canucks Recall Noah Juulsen, Assign Sheldon Dries To AHL

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The Vancouver Canucks and GM Patrik Allvin announced a pair of corresponding moves this afternoon. The club has recalled defenseman Noah Juulsen from the Abbotsford Canucks of the AHL and in turn has assigned forward Sheldon Dries to Abbotsford. No other related moves have been made.

Although the moves seems to be a simple swap of a forward for a defenseman, it does come on the back of defenseman Tucker Poolman leaving Vancouver’s game yesterday with an undisclosed injury. While Poolman hasn’t been placed on IR, it appears the Canucks feels the need to add another person to their blueline for now. Poolman has been dealing with migraine issues for a while now, but appeared to finally turn a corner, skating in each of Vancouver’s first two games. One would certainly hope whatever was ailing Poolman yesterday is not another long-term issue.

Juulsen, a former first-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens, has played parts of four NHL seasons with Montreal, Vancouver, and the Florida Panthers. Like Poolman, Juulsen is a right-handed shot, minimizing the overall impact the change could have. Dries hadn’t played in either of Vancouver’s first two games this season, but will likely get a chance to play top minutes with Abbotsford if he stays long enough. The forward was among the very best in the AHL last season, scoring 35 goals along with 27 assists in just 54 games.

Latest On Bo Horvat

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Vancouver Canucks captain Bo Horvat has spent his entire NHL career with the franchise that drafted him, but as a pending UFA, his time in Vancouver could be coming to an end. Last month, we covered how Horvat had expressed a a desire to remain in Vancouver. Today that picture got a bit more cloudy. Speaking on CHEK’s Donnie and Dhali podcast, Horvat’s agent, Pat Morris, said that he believes “Bo is a number-one center,” a comment made in reaction to the use of Sean Couturier’s $7.75MM AAV deal as a comparable for the contract he’s seeking for Horvat. With the Canucks’ currently tight cap situation, it’s an open question as to whether Vancouver will be able to afford the sort of contract Horvat is seeking.

Morris’ belief that Horvat is a number-one center is telling as to how Horvat’s representation will approach contract negotiations going into their client’s potential unrestricted free agency this summer. The going rate for top-six centers in the NHL in their UFA years is around $8MM AAV, if not more, based on recent deals. We’ve seen centers such as Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, Ryan Johansen, and Mathew Barzal all hit or surpass that number on their own long-term deals. Horvat scored 31 goals and 52 points last season and brings the sort of defensive value and leadership intangibles teams covet, so it’s not unreasonable that a deal in that wide $7MM-$9MM range is Horvat’s target. For the Canucks, though, it’s fair to wonder whether they’ll be able to afford that sort of contract. With the recent J.T. Miller extension and other players making significant dollars already on their books, it’s definitely possible that the Canucks simply won’t be able to offer Horvat the sort of deal he could receive from another club.

Abbotsford Canucks Name Team Captain

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  • Another team announced some captaincy news today. The Abbotsford Canucks, the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, announced that forward Chase Wouters has been named the first captain in the team’s history. While Wouters might strike some as an odd choice due to his age, (he’ll turn 23 in February) he actually has extensive leadership experience. Wouters was the captain of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades from 2018-19 to 2020-21. In that time frame, the Blades had more wins than losses in each year Wouters wore the “C,” so the Canucks will hope that his leadership can bring similar to success to their AHL affiliate.

Vancouver Canucks Recall Sheldon Dries

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The Vancouver Canucks have swapped some youth for experience today, recalling Sheldon Dries from the AHL and sending Danila Klimovich down. The Canucks had created a perfect salary cap situation for the start of the season to maximize their long-term injured reserve placements, and can now tweak as needed.

Losing Klimovich should probably be expected, given where the 19-year-old is in his professional career. After being selected 41st overall in 2021, he played last season with the Abbotsford Canucks and scored just eight goals and 18 points in 62 games. The idea of him stepping directly into the NHL following that performance was always unlikely.

Dries, meanwhile, has plenty of experience as the extra forward on a roster. The 28-year-old has played 59 total games in his career, including 11 last season for the Canucks. It was his performance in the minor leagues, when he scored 35 goals and 62 points for Abbotsford, that helped push him up the organizational depth chart and into a position where he could take on this role to start the year.

After clearing waivers earlier this week, Dries can be shuffled up and down until he plays 10 games in the NHL or is on the active roster for 30 days.

Vancouver Canucks Place Three On Injured Reserve

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There are many teams playing salary cap gymnastics today, though the award may have to go to Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin. The Vancouver Canucks announced a series of roster moves today, most notably placing forward Ilya Mikheyev, as well as defensemen Tyler Myers and Travis Dermott, on injured reserve.

The team also loaned forward Linus Karlsson to AHL Abbotsford while recalling forward Danila Klimovich, a move expected to be reversed once their cap situation is settled. In doing so today, the team completed maximized their LTIR pool relief from Micheal Ferland’s contract, creating exactly zero dollars in cap space, allowing them to reap the full rewards of his $3.5MM cap hit. Ferland is unexpected to play again due to post-concussion syndrome.

In terms of the actual injuries, the three players can be activated from injured reserve at any time as their placement is retroactive to when their injuries were suffered during camp. Mikheyev remains week-to-week with a lower-body injury, while Myers is expected to miss about two and a half more weeks with a lower-body injury (he was given a three-week timeline last week). Dermott is day-to-day after suffering a concussion approximately two weeks ago.

Vancouver joined Toronto, Vegas, Tampa Bay, Edmonton, and Carolina as teams who had maxed their LTIR relief pools to within $100,000.

Waivers: 10/8/22

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With Monday’s season-opening roster deadline quickly approaching, the activity on the waiver wire is likely to pick up as teams get closer to making their final cuts.  We’ll keep track of today’s waiver placements here.

Buffalo Sabres

D Kale Clague
D Jeremy Davies
D Chase Priskie

Calgary Flames

D Dennis Gilbert
D Juuso Valimaki
F Radim Zohorna

Colorado Avalanche

F Shane Bowers
F Martin Kaut

Detroit Red Wings

F Austin Czarnik
D Steven Kampfer
F Matt Luff

Edmonton Oilers

F Brad Malone

Pittsburgh Penguins

D Mark Friedman

Toronto Maple Leafs

F Joey Anderson
D Mac Hollowell

Seattle Kraken

G Joey Daccord
F Alexander True

Vancouver Canucks

F Sheldon Dries
D Christian Wolanin

With the exception of Winnipeg’s Johnathan Kovacevic (claimed by Montreal), all other players from Friday’s group passed through unclaimed.

Canucks Notes: DiPietro, Dermott, Di Giuseppe

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Back in the offseason, it was revealed that Canucks prospect Michael DiPietro had requested a trade.  To this point, there hasn’t been a move made but as president Jim Rutherford told Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province (Twitter link), it wasn’t for a lack of effort on their end:

We were open to it and when a player like that requests it, Patrik made teams aware that we would be willing to give him a chance (with) someone else, but nothing came along.

DiPietro was once a fairly highly-touted goalie prospect after a strong junior career but that has yet to translate into much success in the pros.  Last year, he posted a .901 SV% along with a 2.95 GAA in 34 games with AHL Abbotsford, numbers that don’t scream NHL-ready by any stretch.  He accepted his qualifying offer this summer and he’ll be battling for the backup job in the minors as things stand this season.

More from Vancouver:

  • Tyler Myers isn’t the only Vancouver defender dealing with an injury as Travis Dermott has been out of the lineup recently as well. As Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Province relays, the team has now acknowledged that Dermott is dealing with a concussion which means he’s out indefinitely.  It feels like a make-or-break year for the 25-year-old.  He’s in the final year of his contract and has had a limited role the last few seasons with limited offensive production (seven points in 60 games last year).  Owed a $1.75MM qualifying offer next summer, that might be a bit pricey for a depth defender but Dermott will have to wait for a little while now to start making his case.
  • GM Patrik Allvin told reporters including Harman Dayal of The Athletic (Twitter link) that winger Phillip Di Giuseppe is expected to miss two-to-four weeks with a lower-body injury. The 28-year-old had a nice season with Abbotsford in 2021-22, collecting 36 points in 42 games.  Injured players can’t be waived so he’ll start the year on season-opening injured reserve and then be waived for assignment when he’s cleared to return.

Vancouver Canucks Acquire Riley Stillman

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We have a trade to announce. Per a team release, the Vancouver Canucks are trading center Jason Dickinson and a 2024 second-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for defenseman Riley Stillman. The Canucks have also announced the deal.

From both the Canucks’ side of the trade and the Blackhawks’, the deal makes a lot of sense. From Chicago’s point of view, this swap fits their overarching organizational vision. The Blackhawks are undergoing a full-scale rebuild, and this whole past offseason they proved they would leave no stone unturned in their quest to accumulate as many draft picks and prospects as possible.

At a time when the value of cap space is at an absolute premium, the Blackhawks, by acquiring Dickinson, (who has a $2.65MM cap hit for the next two seasons) have cashed in some of their cap space in order to land a valuable draft pick from another club.

Additionally, the acquisition of Dickinson fits in with some of their other additions from this offseason, in the sense that he is a player whose value has declined from previous seasons and has room to rebound. In the summer of 2021, the Canucks thought highly enough of Dickinson to surrender a third-round pick for his services, and now after just one season he’s relegated to being a negative-value asset in a cap-shedding trade.

While Dickinson’s lone season in Vancouver was admittedly a poor one, the Blackhawks are now hoping that he will respond well to greater opportunity on their team and rehabilitate his value enough to possibly be flipped for even more draft picks either at this trade deadline season or this summer.

Dickinson, 27, was a 2013 first-round pick and has at times shown the ability to be a quality defensive center. But in Vancouver his offense almost completely dried up, meaning improving Dickinson’s play offensively will likely be the first priority for head coach Luke Richardson and his staff.

From Vancouver’s perspective, this deal seems less about acquiring Stillman and more about clearing Dickinson’s contract off their books. Just a few hours ago, we covered how 22-year-old Swedish import Nils Aman was in pole position to seize the Canucks’ fourth-line center role, a development that, prior to this trade, would have left Dickinson either without a regular spot in the lineup or perhaps even on waivers and headed to AHL Abbotsford. Now, the Canucks’ roster decision-making process will be a lot simpler.

While clearing Dickinson’s deal off the cap-strapped Canucks’ books was likely the main purpose of this trade, acquiring Stillman is not without its usefulness as well. Today we learned that Tyler Myers would be out with an injury for the start of the regular season, so perhaps Stillman was acquired in part to help the team make up for his absence.

Stillman, 24, played 52 games last season in Chicago and scored 12 points. The former Oshawa General is a defense-first, physical defenseman who saw some time on the Blackhawks’ penalty kill as well. While it’s unlikely that he’ll climb the Canucks’ competitive defensive depth chart, he’ll be a useful reinforcement as Vancouver looks to pick up where they left off under Bruce Boudreau last year.

Pictures courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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