The deadline for finalizing the Canucks’ 23-man roster is Tuesday at 2 PM. In order to meet that deadline, any players that require waivers to be sent down to the AHL had to be put on the waiver wire on Monday morning.
Unsurprisingly, the list of players on waivers was lengthy this morning, with literally three dozen players available to be plucked off the wire. Since these are some of the final cuts teams are making, there are some decent players too that a team looking for depth might pick up.
One of those players is Andrey Pedan.
What might be more notable is who isn’t on waivers: Alex Biega or any Canucks forward. This provides some clarity to the Canucks roster. They will be going with 8 defencemen and 13 forwards, meaning one forward that does not require waivers will be sent down to the AHL.
What does that mean? One of Brock Boeser, Jake Virtanen, or Darren Archibald is going to be cut and sent down to the Utica Comets. The most likely cut is to Archibald, who does not even have an NHL contract, but if the Canucks want to give Boeser or Virtanen top-six minutes and don’t see it happening in the NHL to start the season, they could sign Archibald to play on the fourth line and send down Boeser or Virtanen.
Because Archibald doesn’t have a contract, however, there is one other scenario: the Canucks could release him from his camp invite, then sometime this week waive a veteran player — say, Derek Dorsett or Alexander Burmistrov — and sign Archibald. In my eyes, this is very unlikely: the Canucks value Dorsett’s experience and leadership and Burmistrov’s versatility.
By not signing a contract now, Archibald actually retains a lot of control. If he did have a contract, he could be claimed by any team on waivers, perhaps even a team that he does not want to join. Instead, he can go play in Utica and wait to sign with the Canucks when (or if) they want to call him up or potentially sign an NHL contract with another team.
As for Biega, I said a couple weeks ago that Canucks fans should get ready for the possibility that he is on the opening night roster. By staying with the Canucks, he’ll sit in the press box as an emergency option at defence or forward, but won’t take away minutes from one of the young defencemen in Utica.
Does Pedan count as one of those young defencemen? I argued this weekend that, at 24, it’s time to figure out if Pedan can play in the NHL. Keeping him in the NHL as the eighth defenceman and rotating him into the lineup would have been one way to assess him. Now, if they want to see if he has what it takes, they’ll need to wait for an injury and call him up.
The fact that they kept him around this long suggests that he might be ahead of the rest of the Canucks’ defensive depth, but Pedan will need to outplay Evan McEneny, Jalen Chatfield, and Philip Holm in Utica to be the first call-up option.
With Pedan on waivers and Archibald likely to get sent down, this is most likely the Canucks’ 23-man roster that will be announced on Tuesday:
Sven Baertschi - Bo Horvat - Brock Boeser
Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Thomas Vanek
Loui Eriksson - Markus Granlund - Sam Gagner
Jake Virtanen - Brandon Sutter - Derek Dorsett
Alexander Burmistrov
Alex Edler - Chris Tanev
Ben Hutton - Troy Stecher
Michael Del Zotto - Erik Gudbranson
Patrick Wiercioch
Alex Biega
Jacob Markstrom
Anders Nilsson
