Canucks scoop Spooner from Oilers for Gagner, place Virtanen on IR
SAN JOSE, Calif. — For the moment, the addition and subtraction is elementary: Jake Virtanen goes on the injured reserve list. Ryan Spooner will be called up by the Vancouver Canucks.
Beyond that, however, the equation gets a little more complex as the Canucks try to account for bodies coming in and out of their NHL lineup and in and out of sick bay.
Saturday, the Canucks acquired Ryan Spooner from the Edmonton Oilers for Sam Gagner and, according to Vancouver’s general manager Jim Benning, Spooner will get an opportunity with the team.
As for the size and scope of that opportunity, get back to us in a week or so.
“He’s a skill player who can play all three forward positions,” Benning said of Spooner. “I thought he had a real good year last year. I don’t know the reason it hasn’t gone his way this year but we’re going to give him a chance.”
Spooner, 27, was selected in the second round of the 2010 draft by Boston when Benning was the Bruins’ assistant GM. Between 2015 and 2018, he averaged 43 points a season. But this year, for reasons that are still unclear, Spooner fell off the face of the map.
He started the campaign with the Rangers, who acquired him from Boston at last year’s deadline in a package for Rick Nash. Then he was moved to Edmonton, where he couldn’t crack the Oilers’ lineup.
He was playing with Edmonton’s AHL affiliate in Bakersfield when the trade was announced. In 41 NHL games, he has three goals and two assists this season.
Gagner, for his part, was on loan to the Toronto Marlies one year after signing a three-year, $9.45-million free-agent deal with the Canucks. Last season, he recorded 31 points in 74 games with Vancouver but he was sent to the Marlies at the start of the year, called up for seven games in November, then returned to the minors.
“It’s a fresh start for both players,” Benning said.
“I’m thankful Jim was able to find another opportunity in the NHL,” Gagner told the Province’s Patrick Johnston. “(I) would have loved for it to work in Vancouver as I believe I could have helped this year. But I’m very excited to be back in Edmonton (the team which drafted him sixth overall in 2007).”
Virtanen’s availability, meanwhile, suddenly becomes a complicating factor for the Canucks. Wednesday night in Anaheim, he took a dubious hit from Ryan Getzlaf late in the first period, returned midway through the second but only played three shifts in the third.
He didn’t play against Los Angeles the next night and, Saturday morning, he had an MRI in San Jose. The winger was seen chatting outside the Canucks’ locker-room before Saturday’s morning skate as his teammates prepared to face the San Jose Sharks.
Head coach Travis Green said Virtanen has suffered an upper-body injury but was quick to add it wasn’t a concussion.
There’s also a logjam developing upfront for the Canucks. If Spooner sticks and Virtanen comes back sooner rather than later, they’ll have to demote Zack MacEwen to Utica or waive/ trade either Tim Schaller, Markus Granlund or Nikolay Goldobin.
“We have another week until the trade deadline,” said Benning. “I’ll continue to make calls and if there’s a hockey trade that helps our team, we’ll make it.”