CANUCKS TRIM ROSTER
Trio bound for waiver wire
It was called a rebuild and then a transition by the brain trust.
How much stock you can place in either assessment was brought a little bit more into focus Sunday morning when the Vancouver Canucks placed forwards Jayson Megna and Michael Chaput and goaltender Richard Bachman on waivers. If they clear by Monday at 9 a.m., they’ll be assigned to the American Hockey League affiliate Utica Comets.
Left winger Anton Rodin has cleared waivers and is awaiting a U.S. work visa this week while skating with the UBC Thunderbirds. What this means in advance of Tuesday’s 2 p.m. (Pacific) deadline is still up for debate. However, there’s no debate that better depth made Megna and Chaput — forwards who found much favour with former Canucks coach Willie Desjardins — out of Travis Green’s mix.
Megna was more noticeable Saturday during a 3-2 pre-season finale victory over the Edmonton Oilers. He logged 14:45 on a line with Brandon Sutter and Darren Archibald — a trio that was even matched up against Connor McDavid between Leon Draisaitl and Patrick Maroon — and his 3:38 of penalty kill time raised eyebrows.
But this is not last year with chances to play on the top two lines. Green has better options there, in his bottom six and the penalty kill.
It would take a rash of injuries or indifferent play to get the 27-yearold Megna back to the NHL after he managed four goals and four assists last season in 58 games as the Canucks racked up 462 mangames lost to injury.
“If he’s going to play in the NHL, that’s the role he has to be in,” Green said of Megna, who had three assists in five pre-season games. “More of a checking-line role and use his speed and hockey
sense. We want to put guys in roles to succeed and roles we think they should be in and play good defence and generate offence.
“I thought the line fared well (against McDavid). That was a tall order to ask, to put them up against arguably the best team in the league.”
Chaput played 68 games last season and his four goals and five assists spoke of limited offence — the 25-year-old was better as a fourth-line centre with 52.7 per cent faceoff efficiency — than being aligned with Henrik and Daniel Sedin as a winger. He had one assist in four pre-season games this fall.
The Canucks still have 14 forwards and 10 defencemen in camp and need to get to a combination of 14 forwards and seven blue-liners, or 13 forwards and eight blueliners plus the two goaltenders, to meet the 23-man roster limit. They could still expose Andrey Pedan or Alex Biega to waivers and need to figure out whether London of the OHL or Finland is the best fit for Olli Juolevi.
Up front, a number of scenarios could still play out.
Bo Horvat (shoulder) is expected to play in the season opener here Saturday against the Oilers, but a setback would muddle the mix. Sven Baertschi was still ill on the weekend and Darren Archibald, who’s on an AHL deal and would need an NHL contract to stick, is still here. So is Alexander Burmistrov after a slow start to camp. And so is Brock Boeser and Jake Virtanen, who have done everything to warrant a hard roster look.
Burmistrov was more noticeable Saturday for all the right reasons.
Slow to get his feet under himself and adapt to Green’s uptempo system, which should help the Russian centre, he did himself some favours Saturday. He set up the opening goal by Virtanen by stripping Darnell Nurse of the puck on the forecheck before levelling rookie Kailer Yamamoto in the slot on the backcheck the next shift.
“The way we forecheck and control the breakaway, sometimes I still get lost and I don’t know where to go,” admitted the 25-year Burmistrov, who had three assists in five pre-season games. “But the more games I play, the more I’m figuring it out and that makes it easier for me to play.
“On the goal, I saw the rim coming and I just tried to get on him (Nurse) as he bobbled the puck. I just quickly took a look to see if there was somebody in the middle and Jake was there.
“It’s an easy play for me if Virt is there.”