Vrbata, Edler and Sutter done for season
The good news is Derek Dorsett took part in the Canucks’ pre-practice skills session Monday and will join his teammates on a three-game road trip that opens Tuesday in Winnipeg.
Yannick Weber and Jannik Hansen also skated, so Willie Desjardins may actually have roster options.
The bad news — and it’s really not that surprising — is Radim Vrbata, Alex Edler and Brandon Sutter have been shut down for the remainder of the season with long-term injuries. Vrbata’s brutal season came to a crushing conclusion Friday in Edmonton when he suffered a suspected knee strain against the Oilers. The unrestricted free agent had just 13 goals in 63 games after scoring 31 last season, and there wasn’t a concrete offer for the winger at the trade deadline.
Edler and Sutter were both injured Feb. 9 in Denver and the loss really took away any fleeting momentum of trying to push for a wild-card playoff position.
Edler blocked a shot and suffered a fractured fibula while Sutter was struck by a puck and suffered a fractured jaw. The centre also missed 33 games with sports-hernia surgery, then played just four more before breaking his jaw.
Sutter had talked recently of wanting to get games in before the end of the season, but that changed with only 11 left on the schedule and the risk of injury
“It’s how it (jaw) is healing and you’re usually given a timeline for the process,” Desjardins said. “Part of it has healed and part of it hasn’t healed as quickly as we thought. It’s probably a week or 10 days behind what we thought and that puts him down to one game. There was no sense pushing him.
“If it was the playoffs, he would probably come back.”