Just a few days ago Canucks fans were pondering whether Andrey Pedan might make the team out of training camp. On Monday, he got put on waivers and on Tuesday he got traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins along with a fourth-round pick for Derrick Pouliot.
This was thoroughly unexpected. Pedan and a pick for Pouliot has a certain ring to it, but I doubt the Canucks made the trade for alliterative purposes. Clearly the Penguins didn’t want to lose Pouliot for nothing on waivers, but couldn’t get anything better from any other team around the league. Considering Pouliot was the 8th overall pick in 2012 and was a key player the Penguins were unwilling to trade in previous years, this is a pretty stunning fall from grace.
The book on Pouliot is that he’s a fantastic skater and was meant to be a mobile, puck-moving defenceman who would easily develop into a top-four guy with upside on the power play. It hasn’t come yet, however, as he’s played just 67 NHL games at the age of 23.
I’ll have more detail on the trade later, but let’s look at the repercussions for the Canucks. With an additional defenceman on the roster, they needed to waive one of Patrick Wiercioch or Alex Biega. They chose Wiercioch, possibly because he’s a left-handed shot like Pouliot, giving them a leftie and a rightie as their 7th and 8th defenceman.
Wiercioch can’t go on waivers until Wednesday morning, however, and the roster deadline is Tuesday at 2 PM. To get under the limit before sending Wiercioch down, the Canucks will need to “send down” one of Brock Boeser or Jake Virtanen, then call them back up later this week.
This likely means no contract for now for Darren Archibald, who is still at Canucks camp on an invite.
