The Vancouver Canucks finalized their opening-day roster on Monday, submitting a 23-man active roster to the NHL, along with a couple of players on the Injured Reserve (IR).
Thanks to the Canucks' unexpected trade of Tucker Poolman to the Colorado Avalanche, clearing all but $500,000 of his cap hit from the books, the Canucks were able to entirely avoid using the cap relief from long-term injured reserve (LTIR) in constructing their roster. That meant they only had to make one final cut to get down to 23 players and be cap compliant.
Contrary to what Cat Stevens might say, the first cut is not always the deepest. In this case, the final cut hurts, as a player who played very well for the Canucks in the preseason got sent down to the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL: Arshdeep Bains.
Let's break down why Bains got the final cut.
Position and waiver eligibility keep Bains off the Canucks
Ultimately, Arshdeep Bains got cut from the Canucks' roster through no fault of his own. Bains played his heart out in the preseason and had his best performance in the final preseason game when the lineups most closely resembled two NHL teams.
Bains won battles all over the ice during Friday's game against the Edmonton Oilers and tallied a goal and an assist along the way. It was an impressive game from Bains, especially from the fourth line, though he also got a little bit of power play time.
All things being equal, Bains' preseason probably should have seen him make the Canucks' roster. But things are never equal in hockey.
One of the first unequal elements is that Bains was one of just three players remaining on the roster who was exempt from waivers. The other two were Aatu Räty and Arturs Silovs. Obviously, Silovs wasn't going to be sent down.
Nils Åman, on the other hand, is waiver eligible, and there was a chance that he might have been claimed if he had been placed on waivers on Sunday ahead of the roster deadline. As much as he's been a relatively unremarkable fourth-line centre in Vancouver, he was fantastic in the AHL last season, with 8 goals and 15 points in 15 games, and has earned trust as a shutdown defensive centre in the NHL.
Åman may not be in the Canucks' lineup on opening night but the Canucks had to be smart about putting their roster together and not risk losing some of their depth.
That left Räty and Bains as the only players who could be sent down on Monday and there was one more inequality between the two: position.
Rick Tocchet specifically mentioned that position was going to have to play a part in the Canucks' final roster decisions. Bains, as a left winger with little versatility to play other forward positions, was going to have a tougher road to making the team given the depth the Canucks have on the wings.
Räty, on the other hand, is a centre who has also played on the wing. More than that, he's good in the faceoff circle, winning 53.9% of his faceoffs in the preseason, including on his off-side on the right. The left-handed Räty will frequently swap hands on his stick to take right-side faceoffs as a right-handed centre, meaning both sides of the ice are his strong side on faceoffs.
That, along with a strong overall preseason for Räty in spite of a few errors, made the difference.
"I think [Räty] is a guy that we're looking for: that centre that's got a stiffness to him and can win draws," said Tocchet after Friday's game. "These young guys are going to make mistakes and you've just got to work with them but there's a lot there to like with guys like Räts."
Now Bains has to once again work his way up from the AHL, though it may not take long. If another injury strikes the Canucks' forward corps, it seems like Bains will be at the top of the depth chart to get called up.
"[Bains] is a guy that we've really got our eye on," said Tocchet. "He's got to work on game management, that's his next level. He's got to understand certain times when to stickhandle and when to get the puck in deep. That's the only thing."
It's worth noting that the team's opening-day roster may not be it's opening-night roster. The team still has the freedom to make changes ahead of Wednesday's home opener against the Calgary Flames. It's not outside the realm of possibility that Bains is back in the Canucks' lineup as early as this week.
Canucks 2024-25 opening-day roster
With the final cut to Bains, officially placing Dakota Joshua and Thatcher Demko on the IR, and sending down Jiri Patera and Erik Brännström to the AHL after they cleared waivers, the Canucks have finalized their opening-day roster.
The roster includes 13 forwards, eight defencemen, and two goaltenders, along with a forward and goaltender on the IR. The Canucks start the season with $479,166 in cap space.
Here is the final roster:
FORWARDS
Danton Heinen - J.T. Miller - Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk - Elias Pettersson - Daniel Sprong
Nils Höglander - Aatu Räty - Conor Garland
Pius Suter - Teddy Blueger - Kiefer Sherwood
Nils Åman
IR
Dakota Joshua
DEFENCEMEN
Quinn Hughes - Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy - Vincent Desharnais
Derek Forbort - Tyler Myers
Mark Friedman - Noah Juulsen
GOALTENDERS
Arturs Silovs
Kevin Lankinen
IR
Thatcher Demko
