Canucks’ Vrbata misses game-day skate in Winnipeg; Grenier called up

Photo Credit: Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports

The hockey gods just won’t lay off of Vancouver Canucks forward Radim Vrbata.

Vrbata, 34, has been one of the most effective volume shooters in hockey this year, but he just can’t buy a goal. And now it seems that the veteran forward may be a bit banged up, as he missed the club’s game-day skate at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, MB on Wednesday morning, the club announced.

On its own, a player missing a game-day skate isn’t much of anything to worry about. Usually the coach says it’s maintenance, and we go on with our merry lives. That Vrbata’s absence coincides with a roster move – the club reassigned AHL leading scorer Hunter Shinkaruk to the American Hockey League and recalled Alexandre Grenier on Wednesday – would suggest that there may be more than just maintenance going on in this case.

Regarding Vrbata’s status there isn’t much more we can say at this point. Desjardins will be asked about the veteran Czech-born sniper’s status following Wednesday’s skate, and we’ll update this post when that happens.

UPDATE: there is no update on Vrbata. I’d probably describe him – and this is based solely on my reading between the lines of the Grenier call up and the club’s lines and power-play formation during their game-day skate – as doubtful for Wednesday night’s game.

Moving onto Grenier, he’s scored two goals and managed seven total points in 13 games with the Comets this season. The relatively pedestrian counting stats aren’t that flattering, but Grenier has been excellent, continuing to show progression as a two-way player and generating over three shots on goal per game. 

At six-foot-five and 210 pounds, Grenier has NHL size and above average hands for a man his size. Though Grenier become a more well rounded player at the AHL level over the past couple of years – Travis Green told me last May that he butted heads with Grenier during his first year with the Comets, and rarely played him late in games, but now he’s become one of his club’s best defensive wingers – at Grenier’s age, 24, the time for him to establish himself at the NHL level is beginning to get a bit short.

If Grenier plays on Wednesday, and based on line rushes in Winnipeg he may suit up in Vrbata’s place on an ostensible third line with Chris Higgins and Jared McCann, it will mark the first time he’s played a regular season game at the NHL level in his career. 

UPDATE: Grenier will, in fact, make his NHL debut on Wednesday night.

Grenier will join an increasingly long list of players – a list that also includes McCann, Shinkaruk, Jake Virtanen, Ben Hutton, Brendan Gaunce – who’ve made their NHL debuts with the Canucks so far this season. 

A late bloomer, drafted with a third-round pick at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Grenier may become the third player from Vancouer’s 2011 draft class to play NHL games – joining Frank Corrado and Nicklas Jensen. A fourth player, former Wisconsin Badgers forward Joseph LaBate, remains in the system. 

On Shinkaruk, who was sent down after making his NHL debut in Montreal on Monday, I thought the young forward fared decently well in his NHL debut. He definitely had a rookie defensive mistake early in the game when he was caught up ice as the Montreal Canadiens set up a screened point shot that Jacob Markstrom stymied, but he got stronger as the game went on and made some smart defensive plays late in a close game in a rowdy building.

Like many 21-year-old forwards, Shinkaruk will have to get stronger if he’s going to consistently win battles along the wall at the NHL level, but I thought, at the very least, that he looked dynamic through the neutral zone on occasion and mostly supported the puck with intelligence and purpose. 

Shinkaruk, 21, has time to grow into an NHL player. He still has the potential to be a star. Though he won’t keep shooting 30 percent in the American League, it’s not the worst thing for him to spend his age-21 season as the best offensive player on his team in the world’s toughest minor league. 

While it would’ve been interesting to see what Shinkaruk might’ve been able to accomplish playing with skilled players like McCann and Higgins, I think there should be a bigger sense of urgency to figure out whether or not Grenier can hack it as an everyday player in the show. 

Shinkaruk, after all, is much younger and has two years remaining after this one on his entry-level contract, where Grenier will be a restricted free agent again this summer and will require waivers following this season. It makes sense for the Canucks to work out what, if anything, they have in the big, skilled right winger. 

Edit: This article originally and incorrect identified Shinkaruk as having a year remaining on his ELC after this one. In fact his contract slid last year, so he has two years remaining.