Motte making the most of his chance to crack Canucks’ opening-night lineup
It’s a question of relativity: How good can you actually be in the preseason? But there’s no doubt Tyler Motte’s September for the Vancouver Canucks has been a good one.
The winger, picked up in a trade last season from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Thomas Vanek, has been one of the Canucks’ best skaters in just about every game he has played in the pre-season.
He has shown spunk in those games, driving the puck to the net and playing a strong defensive game to boot. He scored the nicest goal in the handful of scrimmages at training camp.
He has seen plenty of time on the penalty kill and has even showed up on the power play from time to time.
He has been looking like a player who would fit on a modern third or fourth line. Where once those spots were for grinding, gritty players, willing to drop the mitts from time to time, more than ever they ’re being filled by players who are expected to be quick, to be able to keep up with the opposition’s best players, to do well enough in slowing them down and then, hopefully, be able to chip in offensively.
That’s what Tim Schaller was for the Bruins — a dozen goals on Boston’s fourth line is nothing to sniff at — and the Canucks signed Schaller this summer, hoping he’ll
do the same for them. You can never have too much of that and that’s the kind of player the Canucks clearly hoped Motte could turn out to be.
Those of you who have been following along know there’s still a spot to fill on the Canucks’ opening-night roster and with Antoine Roussel still recovering from an off-season concussion and likely to start the season on injured reserve, there looks to be at least one other spot open to start the season.
Motte’s a candidate to fill one of those spots. So are Darren Archibald, Brendan Gaunce and Nikolay Goldobin.
Motte has shown plenty of grit this pre-season, but his waiver status means he’ll have to fight for an opening-night roster spot.
A strike against Motte is he still doesn’t need to be put on waivers — and clear them — in order to be sent down to the American Hockey League. The other three do. When he plays one more game in the NHL, his status will switch: he’ll have to pass through waivers if the Canucks want to assign him to Utica. Even so, Motte has been thrown plenty of opportunities by his coach over the last two weeks.
“It’s nice to hear your name called,” Motte said of having played in all kinds of situations this preseason. “I feel like I’ve played well.”
Plenty of observers would agree with his positive self-assessment. And he very much knows the battle he finds himself in.
“It’s no secret. Just about every camp, every team has guys battling for spots. We just might have a couple more than normal,” he said.
Given the demands of what the Canucks say they want from their third and fourth lines — smart defensive play, an ability to kill penalties, even chip in on the power play — Motte strikes an upbeat tone.
“I feel like I fit pretty well,” he said.
Getting on pucks, playing with energy, getting to the net are things he believes he brings to the table.
He scored two goals in 15 games last season after coming over from Columbus at the trade deadline. Along the way, the Canucks’ front office held him out of just enough games to keep his waiver status clear. He finished the season in Utica and could still end up there because of his exempt status, despite everything else.
“I obviously had to plant a seed in earning trust,” he said of last season’s audition. This pre-season, he’s been working to renew that trust.
“I thought he’s been playing well, deserved to be rewarded,” coach Travis Green said of moments he has given extra ice time to the 23-year-old Michigan native. The versatility Green apparently sees in the winger is a check in his favour.
“That’s why he’s still here; he’s played well,” Green said.
With one pre-season game left against the Arizona Coyotes Saturday in Kelowna, Motte’s status will come down to the wire. Does Roussel go on injured reserve? Does another injury pop up in the next five days, opening another door and adding a new variable to Green’s roster equation?
Motte will just have to sit and wait.