Vancouver Canucks call up forward Phil Di Giuseppe from Abbotsford, place Will Lockwood on IR

The Vancouver Canucks have called up forward Phil Di Giuseppe from Abbotsford and have placed forward Will Lockwood on injured reserve.

General manager Patrik Allvin announced the transactions on Wednesday morning.

Lockwood was hit into the boards and left last night’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Although the head wasn’t the principle point of contact on the hit, you can clearly see that Lockwood was shaken up after making contact with the boards. It’s unclear at this time how long Lockwood will be out for.

With contributions from Andrei Kuzmenko, who scored twice, along with Dakota Joshua and Sheldon Dries who each scored a goal, the Canucks managed to come away with a 5-2 win last night to get the Rick Tocchet era of Vancouver Canucks hockey started off on the right foot.

As for Lockwood, he’s appeared in 13 NHL games this season and has one assist on the year. Prior to his callup to the big club, Lockwood tallied 12 goals and six assists through 24 games with the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks.

Phil Di Giuseppe signed with the Canucks as a free agent in the 2021 offseason, and despite a couple of call ups to the NHL, has yet to appear in a game at the NHL level with the Canucks. Di Giuseppe re-signed with the organization this past offseason.

Through 71 games with Abbotsford this season and last, Di Giuseppe has registered 23 goals and 40 assists. Di Giuseppe has 16 goals and 37 assists through 201 career NHL games.