When the Canucks take on the Minnesota Wild tonight (during CanucksArmy’s Money on the Board pledge run), they’ll do so without Nikolay Goldobin. Canucks head coach Travis Green confirmed that Nic Dowd was in and that he’s sitting Goldobin to make room.

This comes just a game after Goldobin sat for the final 16 minutes in an uninspiring 2-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes. When asked to elaborate on the decision, Green’s commentary revealed just how frustrated the coaching staff seems with Goldobin at this stage in his development. He told Sportsnet 650’s Brendan Batchelor “you can’t just keep playing them when they’re making the same mistakes over and over.” Yikes.

If Goldobin was ever going to assert himself, the time was now. The Canucks are without Sven Baertschi, Brock Boeser, Markus Granlund, Loui Eriksson and Brendan Gaunce who are all nursing different injuries. And yet, Goldobin’s floundered. Even when Green’s put him in plum positions to produce offensively, Goldobin has struggled to put it together with any degree of consistency.

In his last three games, Goldobin hasn’t registered a point and had just four shots on goal. His ice-time has been steadily decreasing to 7:50 on Wednesday. Is the writing on the wall?

That’s the question I posed to the CanucksArmy staff. Specifically, I asked them how they see things playing out for Nikolay Goldobin with the Canucks.

It’s looking like it’s “put up or shut up” time for Goldy. He’s been given time on pretty much any line that could possibly extrude his abilities and it looks like it’s been wasted away. There could be a variety of reasons why he hasn’t translated from a prospect to a pro but as a hockey player, he’s invisible and even a guy like Jussi Jokinen stood out and he was a throw-in trade. If the Canucks bury him in Utica that may be the end of his time as a Vancouver Canuck. He will require waivers next season so there is the off-chance he’s claimed but the other side of it is that he does just enough that no one cares when he is called up.

I think the Canucks move on from him, personally. Jannik Hansen hasn’t worked out for San Jose so maybe Jim Benning will see that as a wash and feel ok letting him go.

I haven’t seen Goldobin as a fit here for a while. I have been anticipating a trade out of town for Goldy, be it on his own or in a package. He doesn’t seem to fit the profile of what they want in a player, so I don’t see him in Vancouver by the time camp rolls around. Benning and Linden both mentioned the want to add more picks for the upcoming draft. It is entirely possible that one of those picks comes at the expense of Goldobin. Alternatively, they could peddle him for another team’s early/mid 20’s player who hasn’t been a fit. Not unlike the trades of Jensen for Etem or Shinkaruk for Granlund.

He’ll get placed on waivers to start next season. My guess is that he’d get picked up but he might clear if they time it right. I don’t see them getting a return for him. The Canucks have 1 forward spot open and that’s if the Sedins don’t come back. Leipsic, Virtanen, Motte, and Goldobin all require waivers next year. So now, if they go to trade him, any competent front office is going to know they’re in a tight spot and they’ll basically have the Canucks over a barrel in negotiations. You can tell through their comments that they’re basically done with Goldobin now; but it’s not like they’ll be able to get a return on him when a team knows they can just have him for free on waivers once negotiations have stalled.

I think I summed my thoughts up on the matter nicely in an interview with Mike Halford & Jason Brough on TSN 1040 this morning. Oddly enough, my position hasn’t changed since then.