Vancouver Canucks defenceman Luke Schenn is out day-to-day with an upper body injury, general manager Patrik Allvin announced late Thursday afternoon. Obviously, Schenn won’t be in the lineup for tonight’s game against the New York Islanders. The announcement came down with less than 30 minutes to puck drop after Schenn didn’t take warmups at UBS Arena.
Schenn, a pending unrestricted free agent, has been the topic of conversation in recent days, as trade rumours are swirling, with the Boston Bruins and Calgary Flames believed to be among those most interested in trading for the veteran blueliner.
Yesterday, Schenn’s agent Ben Hankinson, who also represents Brock Boeser, was on Donnie and Dhali — The Team to talk about his two Canucks clients. With regards to Schenn, Hankinson said that he’s not sure if an extension would be signed or if a trade would take place, but that they’d have a better idea over the three weeks leading up to the March 3rd Trade Deadline.
“There’s a lot of factors in play,” said Hankinson. “It’s ultimately a situation where I think Canucks management has to figure out, ‘this is a good return we could get’ and they’re almost crazy not to take it because the Canucks aren’t in the playoffs. They can trade him and get some value to help build and move in the direction they want to go.
“The ultimate possibility is he could re-sign with the Canucks next summer. He’s from Kelowna, he’s got a family out there, he loves it out there, and I think if you ask the players in the room, they don’t want to trade Luke Schenn. He’s obviously focused on getting the job done with the Canucks and trying to get out of this and find a way to finish strong here, so who knows where that’ll be, but he’s a warrior and a guy definitely you want on your team.”
Schenn was injured during last night’s game against the New York Rangers — a game the Canucks lost by a final score of 4-3 in regulation — with what the broadcast crew speculated could be a back injury.