Canucks place Alexandre Grenier on waivers

The Canucks continue to trim down their training camp roster today, as Mark Spector from Sportsnet was the first to report that the Canucks have placed forward Alexandre Grenier on waivers:

This move comes as no surprise, as Grenier had not done enough in pre-season to avoid this move. The Laval, Quebec native played a team low 8:13 last night, where he had 2 PIM and 1 shot on goal. He posted a CF% of 50% last night. 

He also appeared in the first pre-season game against San Jose, where he was limited to one shot on goal in 14:28 of ice time.

Grenier just turned 25 in early September, and at this point, what you see is what you get. He may prove to be a depth call up at some point in the season, but he is a player that just doesn’t utilize his skill set to the fullest. He has the size and speed to be an effective depth player, but lacks consistency and intensity.

At this point, Joseph Labate, Borna Rendulic, Jack Skille and Tuomo Ruutu have shown more this pre-season that Grenier quickly fell down the depth chart. 

At times last year in Utica, Grenier looked to be on track to finally breaking through to the NHL but looking at the underlying numbers, it was clear he was benefitting from playing with Hunter Shinkaruk and Brendan Gaunce. Once Shinkaruk was traded, and Gaunce saw some time in the NHL, Grenier quickly disappeared.

It’s safe to assume that Grenier will clear waivers because of two factors. The first being his own performance, which isn’t enough for another team to use a contract spot and secondly, teams haven’t seen attrition in their current assets at this point in camp to take the ‘warm body’.

If Grenier clears, he will be assigned to Utica.