Canucks head into season with everything they need thanks to Allvin

The Vancouver Canucks do not play their National Hockey League season-opener until Wednesday, but already it feels like they’re on a winning streak.

It says something about how encouraging the regular-season preparation has been that when general manager Patrik Allvin told reporters on Monday that there remains no timeline for the return from injury of star goalie Thatcher Demko, the news was neither surprising nor a drag against the heightened expectations the organization has for itself.

Since training camp started a little more than three weeks ago, the Canucks have quelled their crisis in net, smoothly integrated seven new NHL players signed in free agency, saw most of their top prospects push impressively for a lineup spot and, on Monday, declared a full 23-player roster that for the first time in the Allvin-Jim Rutherford era has some wiggle room under the salary cap.

“What I do like is the internal drive here in the organization,” Allvin said Monday in a press conference after setting the Canucks’ roster. “You know, the front office, the coaching staff, the players who always want to push each other. . . we want to get better, and I think that’s a healthy sign in an organization.”

So is the roster Allvin believes is capable of challenging for a Stanley Cup, but comes in $479,000 under the $88-million salary cap while fully accounting for Demko and winger Dakota Joshua, who is recovering from testicular cancer.

Sunday’s trade of permanently-injured defenceman Tucker Poolman and his $2.5-million cap hit to the Colorado Avalanche was a game-changer for what Allvin and coach Rick Tocchet were able to do with Monday’s roster.

“We had different options, different ideas, if we weren’t able to execute a trade there,” Allvin said. “But it definitely helps us, definitely helps the competition (within the team) with some flexibility here now. I think all good teams have depth and all good teams have the internal competition, so I’m happy for coaches to have harder decisions to make. It’s good for the younger players to get a chance for the callups.

“It’s easier to work not being in LTIR and the difficulty of setting (the) roster, as we did last year. I think this definitely gives us more flexibility. And, as I said, I am excited about the competition here.”

Rarely has a seemingly-small bookkeeping transaction made the seismic difference that offloading Poolman did to the Canucks’ roster.

By essentially selling their fourth-round draft pick to the Avalanche for $1.5 million and attaching Poolman to Sunday’s transaction, the Canucks not only enabled themselves to avoid starting another season in the LTIR straight jacket, but created room for two more players on their opening-night roster and fueled internal competition.

Instead of having to waive one of their depth defencemen, the Canucks are able to keep both Noah Juulsen and Mark Friedman, which was the organizational hope all summer.

And instead of starting the season with a skeleton crew of just 12 forwards and seven defencemen, the Canucks will have 13 forwards and eight blueliners.

Monday’s roster included young centres Aatu Raty and Nils Aman. Another prospect, Arshdeep Bains, was the final cut.

Without the Poolman trade the day before, either Aman, who is subject to waivers, or Raty would have been American Hockey League bound, too.

As part of the trade, the Canucks received fringe, puck-moving defenceman Erik Brannstrom. For depth and the chance to further develop him, the team will happily pay the 25-year-old’s $900,000 one-way salary in the minors, something the Avalanche were less keen to do.

The Canucks retain 20 per cent of Poolman’s $2.5-million cap hit. Likely to be in LTIR anyway, the Avalanche take on 80 per cent of the cap charge and are responsible for 80 per cent of Poolman’s actual salary of $3-million. So that’s $2.4 million for Poolman, minus $900,000 for Brannstrom, leaving Colorado a tab on paper of $1.5 million for that fourth-round pick next June.

And the Canucks, more or less, get to keep Friedman and Aman, add a former 15^th-overall pick in Brannstrom for organizational depth, stay out of LTIR and begin accruing cap savings that should allow Vancouver to add another significant NHL player or players before the trade deadline in March.

This trade was a huge win for Allvin.

The GM followed it by proactively signing Nils Hoglander to a three-year, $9-million extension after the winger’s breakthrough, 24-goal season in 2023-24. The 23-year-old is under contract this season at $1.1 million. And then, on Monday, the Canucks reclaimed minor-league goalie Jiri Patera from the Boston Bruins, who had snatched him off waivers last week amid the Jeremy Swayman melodrama. 

“I think Boston apologized,” Allvin said, “but that’s part of the business.”

Patera is goaltending insurance.

At the NHL level, the Canucks may eventually have to carry three goalies when Demko is healthy, unless they decide to shuttle waiver-exempt rookie Arturs Silovs back and forth between the NHL and AHL. But Silovs is the Game 1 starter Wednesday against the Calgary Flames and has time to prove himself essential while the Canucks wait for Demko’s troublesome knee to heal. 

Holding what appears to be another winning lottery ticket after the signing three weeks ago of free-agent goalie Kevin Lankinen, it’s hard to envision the Canucks exposing the experienced backup on waivers even after Demko returns.

“I’m very confident with Silovs and Lankinen,” Allvin said. “Kevin has come in here with a great attitude. And he’s an experienced goalie. His work ethic is pushing Silovs, and I think Silovs has responded really well. I think those guys. . . set us up really well. The coach has obviously got to make a decision who’s playing, but I’m very comfortable with those guys carrying the load here.”

On Demko, who injured the popliteus muscle in his knee in the Canucks’ playoff-opener last April and still hasn’t recovered, Allvin said: “Nothing has really changed in terms of his timeline. Thatcher is very committed. He’s been skating almost every day on his own or with the injured guys, and he’s doing his rehab. I think at this point, the luxury of having Silovs and Lankinen here, we don’t feel we need to rush Thatcher. And I think that’s important for his long-term health. Being around the guys here, he seems to be very upbeat and in good spirits. He’s coming along really well.”

Compared to recent seasons, accommodating three NHL goalies on a roster is a wonderful problem for the Canucks to have.

The crease looks solid, the LTIR shackles are finally broken, there were no serious injuries in training camp or the pre-season, and newcomers including Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen and Daniel Sprong have blended well into a 109-point team whose talented core players look mostly sharp and definitely motivated.

The trip to the regular-season launch pad could scarcely have gone better.

All the Canucks have to do now is blast off. They have everything they need.

Projected line combinations:

Forwards

Danton Heinen — J.T. Miller — Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk — Elias Pettersson — Daniel Sprong
Nils Hoglander — Teddy Blueger — Conor Garland
Nils Aman — Pius Suter — Kiefer Sherwood

Defence

Quinn Hughes — Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy — Tyler Myers
Derek Forbort — Vincent Desharnais

Goalies
Arturs Silovs
Kevin Lankinen

Extra skaters: Aatu Raty, Noah Juulsen, Mark Friedman

Regular injured reserve: Thatcher Demko, Dakota Joshua