Five battles from Canuck’s roster to watch this preseason

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Training camp opened in Abbotsford with its usual enthusiasm on Thursday. The players were skating hard. Trained coaches. Players had to skate to close out practice and one player, Conor Garland, missed his breakfast.

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The Canucks skate at the Abbotsford Center again on Friday and Saturday before beginning their preseason schedule on Sunday in Spokane, Washington, against the Seattle Kraken expansion.

Here are five list questions to consider with three weeks to go until the 2021-22 season really opens:

Shaking the ‘D’

The two-defender status will have a lot to say about how the Canucks defense shakes up. If things go according to plan, the team will most likely start the season with eight defenders on the roster.

However, it could be just seven, depending on what happens to Travis Hamonic and Quinn Hughes. The Canucks said Hamonic’s absence on Wednesday and Thursday was a “personal matter.” Postmedia News understands that it is related to your vaccination status.

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Players can dress this season if they aren’t vaccinated, but there are a number of restrictions on how they can do their job and life, and they risk being suspended without pay if they can’t show up. to work due to things like quarantine or local public health requirements.

A timeline to consider: The current minimum interval for a two-dose puncture in BC is four weeks, and the NHL considers one to be fully vaccinated only if two weeks have passed since the second puncture. So in six weeks, if the first blow were today.

(A player could travel to the US to receive the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is approved in Canada but has never been used in this country. They would still have to be quarantined for two weeks upon return.)

So if Hamonic is not available, even for a few weeks, that is a huge pain for managing Canucks.

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As it stands, it is destined to be associated with Hughes. The most obvious choice outside of Hamonic to partner Hughes would be Luke Schenn, who did it for Hughes’ first NHL cup of coffee at the end of the 2018-19 season.

If Hamonic plays, Schenn is more likely to skate in the third defensive pair.

Of course, Hughes remains unsigned, but it’s hard to see the Canucks start the season without him.

If you’re not playing, there are plenty of opportunities to fill the left side behind Oliver Ekman-Larsson, with Olli Juolevi, Jack Rathbone and Brad Hunt set to compete for playing time, whether there’s a regular spot available or two.

End of fourth line

With Tyler Motte out for at least three more weeks with an undisclosed upper body injury, his spot on the fourth row needs to be filled. Two faces seem obvious: Zack MacEwen and Will Lockwood.

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Canucks general manager Jim Benning had stated that the great Prince Edward Islander would be a full-time NHL player by the end of the 2019-20 season, then signed him to a two-year contract. But 2020-21 was a dog for MacEwen. He struggled to get out of the door, he didn’t dress often, and when he dressed for a game, he wasn’t used much.

For a team that needs speed and power from its fourth line, MacEwen may have a hard time meeting the requirements. He’s big, doesn’t mind throwing his weight, and has a nose for the net. However, speed is not his thing. And if you’re not killing penalties or playing with power, as hockey analyst Ray Ferraro once said: “If they don’t ask you to do more, they will soon ask you to do less.”

Lockwood, on the other hand, has speed to burn. And he has a long-standing will to risk his body, even if he is not a giant. That fearless approach has led to surgery before, but he has maintained his tough skating style since those repairs.

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His bravery, which has hints of Motte, earned him a cameo in the NHL to close out the 2020-21 season.

The Podkolzin setting

In the long run, Vasily Podkolzin should find himself at least as a second-line winger. But he seems more likely to play Jason Dickinson’s right wing on the third row to begin with, with Tanner Pearson on the left side.

That is, of course, assuming Elias Pettersson signs before the season starts and the first two lines flail in the most obvious way, with JT Miller and Brock Boeser on Pettersson’s wing, and Nils Höglander and Garland flanking Bo. Horvat.

Podkolzin is a power forward: he uses his size and strength to control the puck and force turnovers. He’s also a different type of power forward, as he’s a top-tier puck dealer, rather than an elite scorer. (This is not to say that you don’t have a good chance, far from it.)

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And that’s the kind of skill set that would look really cool with Horvat. So there is always the possibility that the future comes sooner rather than later and supplants Höglander on the second line.

The next men

With Brandon Sutter also a question mark due to fatigue, the center spot on the fourth line is under consideration, at least in the short term.

Canucks coach Travis Green knows Nic Petan well from his junior hockey days at Portland, Orel, and Petan can play all three forward positions, so he’s the obvious choice. So is Justin Dowling, who was Dickinson’s teammate in Dallas.

In bands, Phil Di Giuseppe and Matt Highmore also seem to play a deep role.

The Abbotsford Shuttle

The plan is for goalkeeper Mike DiPietro to make 50 games at Abbotsford this season. That is why Jaro Halák was hired to be Thatcher Demko’s endorsement.

But what if DiPietro plays out of his skin? Would the Canucks take him down Highway 1 for some extra NHL starts this season?

Teams with nearby AHL teams have done it before.

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