Vancouver Canucks recall defenceman Jack Rathbone from Abbotsford

The Vancouver Canucks have recalled 23-year-old defenceman Jack Rathbone from the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks, according to Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali — The Team.

Rathbone has four goals and eight assists through 32 games played with Abbotsford this season. He has been the horse on the backend for Abbotsford ever since Christian Wolanin was called up to the NHL five weeks ago.

Drafted by the Canucks in the fourth round at 95th overall of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, Rathbone turned pro in 2020 after a successful collegiate career at Harvard University of the NCAA.

Rathbone got into six NHL games earlier this season but has not played for new head coach Rick Tocchet just yet.

The Canucks are out of recalls from the AHL, so this is an emergency recall that will allow Rathbone to join the NHL roster. There are injuries on the defence corps to Christian Wolanin, Noah Juulsen, and Guillaume Brisebois. Basically, all the AHL guys who play defence.

We’re hoping that Rathbone gets a chance to skate on a pairing with Filip Hronek. After seeing Hronek in the lineup for one game, we like what we see and believe that his calming influence would help Rathbone be able to utilize his best skills — which are skating with and passing the puck up ice.

Rathbone is now reunited with one of his best friends Aidan McDonough, who we hope gets his NHL debut this weekend with a pair of back-to-backs.

As for timelines for the injuries, we aren’t sure about Wolanin, who was hurt during Thursday night’s game. Tocchet said that Brisebois is, “dealing with a couple things,” in the postgame on Thursday night. Juulsen is rumoured to have an ankle injury and may be out a couple of weeks.

The only two remaining defencemen with NHL contracts on the Abbotsford roster are Jett Woo and Brady Keeper.

Keeper has struggled to stay healthy this season and hasn’t quite found the groove in the AHL.

Woo may end up being the next option as he has been playing the best hockey of his pro career and confidence certainly isn’t lacking in his game right now.

We will have to wait and see what comes next but it’s time for Rathbone to show what he’s got to new head coach Rick Tocchet.

The Vancouver Canucks are in action Saturday on the road against Dallas at 4:00 pm PT and on Sunday they are in Chicago to face the Blackhawks at 3:00 pm PT.