There is no room on the Canucks roster. All of their departing veterans from last season were replaced on the first day of free agency and they have multiple young players pushing to get into the lineup.
And still, there will be veteran players who are still free agents at this point in the off-season who look at the Canucks and see an opportunity to make the team. All it takes, in their mind, is an opportunity and a strong pre-season performance.
Maybe they’re right: no one expected Jack Skille to make the team last season and he ended up as a staple on the fourth line. Frankly, the Canucks need to sign some veteran free agents to professional tryout agreements considering their split-squad games in the pre-season. Half the team is heading to China.
The first of those PTOs: Ryan White, a 29-year-old fourth-line centre who split his season between the Arizona Coyotes and Minnesota Wild last year.
White hails from Brandon, MB and plays a tough, gritty game. He’s willing to drop the gloves if necessary and is, as Jim Benning would say, good in scrums. He also throws hits at a high rate, finishing 30th in the NHL in hits despite playing just 65 games last season.
Unfortunately, when you play on the edge like that, sometimes you go over the other side. He’s had a few questionable hits in his career, such as his high headshot to Tomas Jurco and another on Kent Huskins, for which he received a 5-game suspension.
White also has a bit of a scoring touch, potting 9 goals from the fourth line last season and 11 goals with the Philadelphia Flyers the year before, but his underlying possession numbers have been sub-par throughout his career. He has put up a positive relative corsi just once in his career, in 2014-15 with the Flyers. In general, White doesn't spend a lot of time in te offensive zone.
Still, that's more offensive production than the Canucks got out of any of their fourth-line forwards last year, but it’s tough to see a path into the lineup for the veteran centre. The Canucks have Alexander Burmistrov and Brendan Gaunce available to play fourth-line centre (or possibly Sam Gagner) and will have Michael Chaput and Griffen Molino available in Utica.
White doesn’t bring penalty killing or faceoffs to the table, so that makes things tough for him to make the team as a centre. While he can also play on the wing, the Canucks have even more of a logjam when it comes to wingers.
In his favour, however, he does look like a member of the Night's Watch. Give him a dragonglass dagger and he'll take down a White Walker.
I like Ryan White getting a PTO because he looks like a scout that ran back from the Wall to give the Starks some bad news. pic.twitter.com/8E6jyqtv8G
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) August 29, 2017
Barring an outstanding pre-season, it doesn’t seem likely that White will crack the Canucks’ lineup.
