With the surprise announcement of a trade Tuesday morning, the Canucks complicated their roster situation heading into the Tuesday afternoon deadline. Adding Derrick Pouliot to the mix meant two players needed to be sent down, but any players requiring waivers were supposed to be put on the waiver wire on Monday morning.
It certainly wasn’t the end of the world — the Canucks could have sent down Brock Boeser or Jake Virtanen, then called them back up later in the week — but it turns out there is a stipulation in the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement that covers exactly this situation.
as per @ryanbiech's tweet earlier, here's the relevant CBA section that allows teams stay under 23 man limit after a trade pic.twitter.com/kBrY68iCIh
— nobody (@petbugs13) October 3, 2017
Essentially, when a trade puts a team over the 23-man roster limit, they can tell the NHL that they will put a player on waivers, declare that player a “non-roster” player, and Bob’s your uncle.
That meant the Canucks needed to waive either Patrick Wiercioch or Alex Biega. They went with Wiercioch, which is surprising, as their respective NHL careers have made it pretty clear that Wiercioch is the superior player. Pouliot is a left-handed shot, however, and head coach Travis Green likes to keep a balance of lefties and righties on defence.
Jim Benning and Green both confirmed that Wiercioch being a left-handed shot played a role in him being chosen to go on waivers.
“Wiercioch, he had a good camp,” said Green. “You’ve got to make decisions. I like having lefties and righties, that definitely played into it.”
With the other Canucks that have gone on waivers this preseason, there was little chance they would be claimed. A team might take a risk on Wiercioch, however, as his analytics in Ottawa were superb. A team that pays attention to his underlying numbers might claim him, banking on him bouncing back after a disastrous season in Colorado.
The last player to get cut was Darren Archibald, a player that won over the hearts and minds of Canucks fans during the preseason. His tendency to not just hit opposing players, but run them over, had many arguing he deserved a fourth-line role.
The difficulty for Archibald is that he didn’t have an NHL contract and both Brock Boeser and Jake Virtanen played their way onto the team.
“Archie’s going back to Utica today,” confirmed Green. “He played well. There’s a reason he was here, we talked about that in the last week or so, he put himself in a position to be here.”
Green was very familiar with Archibald, who has been one of the best players on the Utica Comets over the last couple seasons, but his familiarity didn’t play a role in his long audition: “The reason he got a long look is because he played well and he deserved to get a long look.”
Archibald led the Comets in scoring last season, but he’ll have a tough time repeating that feat this year, with a number of talented young wingers joining Utica’s roster. Even still, he could be an option for the Canucks as the season progresses if they want to add some fourth-line grit. He will require a contract to get called up, but the Canucks are safely below the 50-contract limit with 47.
In related news, the Canucks sorted out where Olli Juolevi will ply his trade this season, loaning him to TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga, where he'll play with fellow Canucks prospect Petrus Palmu under the tutelage of assistant coach Sami Salo.
With Archibald and Wiercioch out and Pouliot in, that finalizes the Canucks' 23-man roster:
