Canucks’ Tanner Pearson heads to injured reserve after leaving Wednesday’s game

Late Thursday morning, the Vancouver Canucks announced that forward Tanner Pearson is heading to the injured reserve.

Pearson left Wednesday night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens with an undisclosed injury that some speculated was a mid-game trade as the Canucks sent out a tweet saying that the forward was not going to return in the game.

With Pearson heading to the IR, the Canucks have recalled Sheldon Dries from the Abbotsford Canucks.

Pearson has averaged 14:03 of ice time a game before leaving the game on Wednesday. He has primarily been used in a third-line role with the Canucks but has moved up to play with J.T. Miller at times this season. He has one goal and four assists on the year while taking eight minor penalties.

Dakota Joshua was a healthy scratch on Wednesday night, so he would be the easy answer for who comes into the lineup while Pearson is on IR. There’s no timeframe yet about how long Pearson will miss but initial reports from Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie & Dhali are saying that the early word is that it’s “not good” and isn’t expected to be a day-to-day injury.

The Canucks will have to reshuffle their lines and begin to include both Vasily Podkolzin and Nils Höglander for what looks to be at least the next few games.

Dries provides some options for the forward group as head coach Bruce Boudreau has recently used Dries in a third-line centre.

An update on the injury is likely be made soon and we will keep you updated if this turns out to be long-term for Pearson.

The Canucks now have two days off in Toronto before their big Saturday night game against the Leafs.

Puck drop for Saturday is set for just minutes after 4 PM Pacific time.