Canucks injury updates: Carson Soucy out week-to-week, Anthony Beauvillier sick

The Vancouver Canucks will be without defenceman Carson Soucy on a week-to-week basis as he recovers from a leg injury, Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said Sunday.

Soucy, 29, left Friday’s 3–1 preseason victory over the Calgary Flames after getting awkwardly tangled up with Flames forward Yegor Sharangovich in the corner of the Canucks’ defensive zone.

Tocchet also provided status updates on Canucks forwards Anthony Beauvillier and Teddy Blueger, the latter of whom made an early exit from Sunday’s practice for precautionary reasons.

Beauvillier, who Tocchet said is fighting a team-wide flu bug, did not practice at all on Sunday. Blueger wanted to finish Sunday’s practice after getting banged up but Tocchet said he didn’t want to risk his bruise developing into anything more serious.

While both Beauvillier and Blueger are considered day-to-day and could be ready to go when the Canucks open their 2023–24 season against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday, Soucy’s status is much less certain.

The 29-year-old defenceman signed a three-year contract worth $3.25 million per season with the Canucks back on July 1. The deal carries a full no-trade clause and makes him the team’s fourth-highest-paid defender, behind Quinn Hughes, Tyler Myers, and Filip Hronek.

Soucy spent the last two seasons with the Seattle Kraken after being claimed from the Minnesota Wild in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. The Viking, AB product collected three goals and 16 points while averaging 16:18 per night in 78 games with the Kraken in 2022–23.

The Wild originally selected Soucy in the fifth round (No. 137 overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft. The 6’5″ left-shot defenceman transitioned from the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints to the University of Minnesota-Duluth immediately thereafter, spending four full seasons with the Bulldogs before turning pro in the Wild organization in 2017.

Through 250 career games over parts of five NHL seasons with the Kraken and Wild, Soucy has collected 21 goals and 68 points. He’s added two points in 26 playoff contests.