Canucks Reassign Cassels, 11 Others; Pare Roster Down to 44 Players

Just hours after pissing off most of the greater Vancouver area by cutting Jordan Subban after one pre-season game, the Canucks have sent 11 more players to Utica, possibly to distract us. Most of these are just business as usual cuts, but there are a few interesting names that might disappoint a few people.

Read the Canucks’ press release here.

See what I’m saying?! MISDIRECTION.

The Canucks have assigned (or invited, in the case of PTO’s) the following players to Utica Comets training camp:

In addition, they assigned goaltender Rylan Parenteau to his WHL team, the Prince Albert Raiders.

Many of these are no surprise at all – like Carter Bancks and Wacey Hamilton before them, players on AHL deals, such as Darren Archibald and John Negrin, were just here for the experience and were never going to get any preseason games. The same can probably be said for goaltender invitees Carr and Parenteau, and winger AHL depth player Derek Hulak.

It’s also not much of a surprise to see prospects Mackenze Stewart and Yan-Pavel Laplante go down, as both struggled to keep up during the Young Stars tournament – NHL competition, even the watered down sort, is probably well about their purview at this point.

My level of surprise increases to “mild” when it comes to some of the younger invitees. Not so much Danny Moynihan, who I was surprised they even invited, but with Marco Roy and Curtis Valk, who have played professional hockey before and showed well in Penticton. I mentioned a few articles ago that I was hoping to see Valk get a game in at the NHL preseason level, as even with his small stature, he handled himself well at the AHL level and produced at half a point per game over a small sample. I’m also mildly surprised than Evan McEneny didn’t see a preseason game, but not particularly concerned about it.

The biggest surprise for me is Cole Cassels. We all know about the struggles he had in his rookie AHL campaign, as well as the steps he’s taken to come into training camp ready for a renaissance season. While he wasn’t as flashy as some of the invites in Penticton, I thought Cassels was one of the strongest players in terms of structure and two-way play. He also scored a goal, and like Willie Desjardins said that one time, this is the get it done league, so don’t points count?

Even more unfortunately, it will deprive us of the return of the Cassels vs McDavid narrative from the 2015 OHL Final.

Cassels and the rest of the cuts will get a chance to head to upstate New York and get settled before Comets training camp begins, which is on October 3rd according to Dave Tomlinson.

With yesterday’s six cuts, and today’s 16 (so far at least, but who knows, they’re on a rampage!), the Canucks training camp roster is down to a paltry 44 players (effectively that’s more like 38, as Jannik Hansen and Luca Sbisa are still participating in the World Cup and the four Swedes – the Sedins, Loui Eriksson and Jacob Markstrom – have yet to join training camp).

As is often the case, the list of those that remain is as or more interesting than the list of those who are gone. Here’s a full list of who has survived the first three waves of reassignments:

Personally, I’m probably most excited that Alexis D’Aoust is still around. No less, he’ll be getting a preseason game tonight, while fellow invitees have gotten the axe. That can only be good news, and I hope they sign him to an Entry Level deal immediately following tonight’s game (here’s a reminder of why that’s allowed). Michael Carcone, who has already been signed, is also playing tonight.

Olli Juolevi and Guillaume Brisebois are the only remaining prospects who could still be sent back to their junior teams. Both will make their debuts with the Canucks tonight. Most eyes will be on Juolevi, as the Canucks highest drafted defenceman in nearly 20 years, but Brisebois interests me as well. A source that was at Canucks training camp in Whistler mentioned to us that the Canucks were dissatisfied with Brisebois’ battle level in training camp and we’re giving him a hard time about it, so that will be something else to keep an eye on tonight.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the lineups for tonight’s game against the dirty rotten Oilers, who have brought that #bust McDavid and deplorable former Bruin Milan Lucic to town:

Ryan Miller and Thatcher Demko are the goalies for tonight. A starter has yet to be named, but we know which way Willie is leaning.

Game time is at 7:00pm, and you may have the good fortune of actually watching this one on your television machine.