Jack Rathbone held out from Abbotsford game by request of the Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks’ top prospect was noticeably absent from the Abbotsford Canucks’ game against the San Jose Barracuda on Thursday night.

Jack Rathbone has battled injury and illness this season but Thursday’s game was a different situation.

The Vancouver Canucks are travelling with six healthy defencemen on their current four-game road trip.

CanucksArmy has learned that as requested by the big club, Rathbone was a healthy scratch from the lineup for precautionary reasons.

Due to the CBA only allowing four AHL call-ups after the trade deadline, the Canucks seem to be tiptoeing the line as they are allowed to make an emergency call-up if the team is unable to ice six defencemen.

If an injury were to occur, Rathbone could be called up to Vancouver without using one of their four AHL call-ups.

The Vancouver Canucks have already used two of their four call-ups with the papering down and recalling of Vasily Podkolzin and Nic Petan.

This would mean that the club would have to pick and choose which AHL players they want to see later on in the season. There are some options with NHL potential for the two final call-up sports

Will Lockwood is a potential call-up who has made big improvements to his penalty-killing this year and should push for a spot next year.

Sheldon Dries has 32 goals in 49 games and has shown to be a solid penalty killing centre for Abbotsford this season.

Jack Rathbone is more than ready for more NHL action. He is getting back into a groove after an injury kept him out of the lineup for multiple weeks. Rathbone has now played in 15 games since taking that brutal hit from behind in mid-January.

Madison Bowey and Noah Juulsen are both right-shot defencemen who have shown they can fill in at the NHL level.

If you’re looking at this list, the obvious choices are Lockwood and Rathbone. Both of these players are top prospects for the Canucks and have shown well in the AHL this season.

We will keep you posted if Rathbone gets called up to the NHL or if the Canucks want to stay flexible with their two remaining call-up spots.

Abbotsford is in Stockton, California on Friday and we’re told Rathbone is expected to be in the lineup for that game. As long as there are no injuries to the Vancouver Canucks’ defence corps over the weekend, the plan is to keep playing Rathbone in the AHL for the time being.

Vancouver is in action on Saturday in Dallas and Monday in St. Louis.

Keep your eye on CanucksArmy for all the latest updates on Jack Rathbone’s situation.