Sports Canucks need to give Rodin a chance
Both the Vancouver Canucks and their minor-league affiliate played hockey games Wednesday. Anton Rodin was is in neither of them. It has become all too familiar. In the past 22 months, Rodin has participated in nine games (after his 2015-16 Swedish Hockey League MVP season was cut short by a knee injury). It’s a number that is critically important because Rodin is 26 years old and a 2009 draft pick. He’s running out of real estate in pursuing his dream of becoming an NHL regular.
What is happening to him right now is entirely unfair, and the Canucks need to do something to fix this.
Rodin lost last season because of two surgeries. He is completely recovered. He’s still not playing.
The reasons are both complicated and simple. The simple part? He’s been recalled to the NHL and he’s not good enough to be playing ahead of anyone on the Canucks. At least, that was the message from coach Travis Green Wednesday when asked if he would look to get Rodin some playing time.
“This is not a league of ‘let’s get a look-see at guys just because,’” Green said.
“He’s here for a reason right now, but it doesn’t mean I need to get a look at him. It depends on how we play, how he looks in practice.”
Green may not want to give Rodin a look, but coaches give players looks all the time in this league. The Canucks got a look at Nikolay Goldobin last year. Brock Boeser, too. If I were betting money, I’d wager they do the same for Adam Gaudette at the end of this season.
Junior-aged prospects get looks in the NHL for nine games to start seasons regularly.
Take the New Jersey Devils’ Jesper Bratt. He played in the same league as Jonathan Dahlen last year, Sweden’s second-tier Allsvenskan. He put up half as many points as Dahlen. The Devils gave him a look to start this season and he piled up 10 points in his first 10 games. What a find. Rodin has a much more decorated resume than Bratt. Rodin is not some scrub. In 2016, he won SHL MVP honours, playing only two-thirds of the season in doing so. This is a real player, with real talent.
I’m not saying he deserves an NHL job, but he’s definitely earned the chance to try to earn one – and that’s not happening right now.
The complicated part of the equation has been the situation in Utica. A veteran rule has meant multiple players deemed vets had to be healthy scratches for games.
In four of them already, Rodin was one of the players forced to sit.
So Rodin played just three games in October and the vets who played ahead of him aren’t exactly a who’s who of NHL potential, including Jayson Megna, Michael Chaput, Darren Archibald (who still doesn’t have an NHL contract) and 34-year-old Jaime Sifers.
Rodin is a season removed from being voted the SHL’s MVP, and now he’s not good enough to consistently crack Utica’s lineup? Come on, now. When the Canucks ran into injury issues to start this season, Green played both Chaput and Megna ahead of Rodin. That’s totally up to him. But if he doesn’t think Rodin is good enough to play ahead of Megna, why is Rodin in Vancouver?
There is no one in this organization who needs to play more than Rodin needs to play. There are all sorts of reasons why.
The main one is he’s still trying find himself again after a lost season. He needs pucks on his stick in games to get his confidence to where it was when he was tearing up the SHL.
Maybe Green doesn’t believe Rodin is ready to be an NHL player. There is certainly enough evidence to suggest that, even though the Canucks signed him to one-way, $700,000 deal after Green was hired.
The late off-season signing of Thomas Vanek sure looks like one that would have a coach’s fingerprints all over it, and it’s not one that helped Rodin at all.
If the Canucks don’t believe in Rodin, that’s fine. Green has earned his position and he’s proving he’s very good at it.
But, man, give Rodin a chance to play in Utica. Let him show other teams he’s healthy. Let him try to put up points and score, and maybe a team that desperately needs offence – and there are several – will come calling for him.
No team is going to make an offer for Rodin if he’s not playing. Heck, many around the NHL are going to assume he’s not playing because of his knee, which is 100 per cent false.
There was a report earlier this season Rodin would flee to Europe if he was sent down to Utica.
The Canucks denied it, but with the way they’re treating him right now, it looks like they’re actually trying to negotiate that one retroactively.
— Head coach Travis Green