Canucks Recall Mike Zalewski

The Canucks’ call up game is already in midseason form, as they’ve been bit by the injury bug nice and early this season. With four would-be regulars now on the Injured Reserve (Rodin, Tanev, Burrows, Dorsett), management is having to make more recalls that they’d prefer to making in the third week of the season.

Today’s lucky recipient is Mike Zalewski, up for what will be his fourth stint with the team, though he’s played just five career NHL games to this point.

The Zalewski call up is a little bit tricky to figure out. Though the versatile forward has played both centre and the wing in his time in Utica, he’s been predominantly deployed as a centre in his limited NHL time, and to modest success. Zalewski has won 60 percent of draws that he’s taken for the Canucks (though that sample includes just 10 faceoffs), and holds a Corsi-For percentage of 53.8 in roughly 58 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time.

This is mysterious because the Canucks are fairly set down the middle, with Henrik Sedin, Brandon Sutter, Bo Horvat, and Brendan Gaunce all healthy – all three of their injured forwards are wingers. This would be easy to overlook if Zalewski had been the best player available in Utica, but that isn’t the case. Alex Grenier, who is at least as much of a prospect as Zalewski is, has started the season off nicely, with five points (two goals, three assists, all primary) in five games. He’s second on the team in shots with 13, and third in 5-on-5 goal ratio, at 60 percent.

If for some reason the Canucks were dead set on a centre, then Michael Chaput would likely have been the best option. His seven points (one goal, six assists) leads all Comets, as he’s been their first line centre and first power play unit half-wall distributor all season. Clearly more of a passer, Chaput has just five shots on net in his five games. You could make the argument that the Canucks are looking to call up a prospect rather than an AHL guy, but they just called up Jayson Megna, who’s actually two years older than Chaput, who is the same age as Zalewski (24).

Zalewski meanwhile, has just one assist in five games, a secondary helper on Derek Hulak’s insurance goal in game four. Granted, his 10 shots are tied for third on the team, and his 67 percent goal ratio is second, one of the two that are better than Grenier’s.

Another area where Zalewski may have an advantage over Grenier is penalty killing: he takes a regular shift short handed, whereas Grenier does not, and Chaput is more of a backup option. With Burrows and Dorsett being prominent penalty killers for the Canucks, they may have wanted someone who could step into that role as needed – although Zalewski has yet to see any penalty kill time in his previous stints with the Canucks.

Both Chaput and Zalewski can play centre or the wing, though the line of thinking could also be that Zalewski fits the fourth liner role better than Chaput does, and in that there is some truth. Grenier’s game could also translate to the fourth line, but he lacks the upfront versatility of the other two.

Whatever their reasoning, it doesn’t even really seem like the Canucks are intent upon laying their latest call up, unless more injuries arise.