Vancouver Canucks recall defenceman Akito Hirose ahead of season opener vs. Oilers

The Vancouver Canucks have recalled defenceman Akito Hirose from the Abbotsford Canucks. In a corresponding move, the club assigned Vasily Podkolzin to the AHL. Podkolzin was listed on the Canucks’ opening night roster on Monday, but that was merely for salary cap reasons.

As their season kicks off tonight, the Canucks are without defenceman Carson Soucy, who is out “week-to-week” after getting tangled up with Calgary Flames forward Yegor Sharangovich in the Canucks’ final game of the preseason last week. Thankfully, it looks like Soucy will be back sooner than expected, as he skated on his own yesterday prior to Canucks practice. Soucy also didn’t open the season on the long term injured reserve, another good sign that the Canucks won’t be without one of their key offseason acquisitions for too much longer.

Hirose, 24, signed with the Canucks as an NCAA free agent late last season, and got into seven NHL games. He looked capable of playing regular NHL minutes in that short stint, and added three assists in the process. Coming into training camp this year though, Hirose was part of an underwhelming “battle” for the final defence spots on the Canucks’ NHL roster. The Canucks will be hoping that he can play more like the player they saw last season rather than the one they saw in this year’s preseason.

Harman Dayal and I spoke about the impact of Soucy’s absence on the Canucks’ defence corps during yesterday’s episode of Canucks Conversation, and you can read — and watch — more from that conversation by clicking here!

Puck drop between the Oilers and Canucks is set for 7 PM Pacific, and we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming today! Scenes from morning skate will be published shortly; we’ll have an Instant Reaction article live on the site moments after the final horn, and later in the evening, award-winning journalist Wyatt Arndt returns with The Stanchies! The Statsies — CanucksArmy’s analytics-based post game report by Mike Liu — will be posted tomorrow morning.