The Vancouver Canucks have activated defenceman Carson Soucy ahead of tonight’s game against the New Jersey Devils. In a corresponding move, the club has moved forward Phil Di Giuseppe to long term injured reserve.

Soucy, 29, left the Canucks’ November 12th matchup against the Montreal Canadiens after a shot struck him in the back of the leg.

“I got twisted up and it almost got me kind of behind,” Soucy said of his injury. “It’s the ones that you’re not really expecting to get blocked, I think that’s where the injuries are, like even Teddy [Blueger’s] earlier this year, like you’re not really looking, so it gets you in a little different spot. I don’t know if there’s just not as much protection kind of behind the skate, but yeah, I think it’s just kind of all where it gets you. It was just a wrist shot, but kind of got me in a tough spot.

“That one felt different, I kind of knew, but you still want to give kind of everything you have to come back, so I tried to get some strides in, but yeah, deep down I pretty much knew right away.”

It remains to be seen for certain if Soucy will be in the lineup tonight in New Jersey, but given how close Soucy has been to returning the past couple of weeks, it seems pretty safe to assume he’ll be in the Canucks’ lineup tonight.

If Soucy does return, it will be interesting to see how the Canucks align their defence group, as we anticipate that they will dress four left-handed defenceman. Rick Tocchet has expressed before that he’s not a big fan of defencemen playing their off sides, so unless one of Ian Cole or Nikita Zadorov is coming out of the lineup, it would be safe to assume that Noah Juulsen will be the odd man out upon Soucy’s return.

You can read our pregame article for today’s game courtesy of Jeff Paterson by clicking here.