Two days after their first wave of roster cuts, the Vancouver Canucks cut another 15 players, including three players placed on NHL waivers.

Ty Mueller, Riley Patterson, Ilya Safonov, Chase Wouters, Kirill Kudryavtsev, and Sawyer Mynio have all been assigned to AHL Abbotsford. Ben Berard and Isaac Belliveau were released from their PTOs and will report to AHL Abbotsford. Trey Fix-Wolansky, Cole Clayton, and Jimmy Schuldt have been placed on waivers for AHL assignment. The following four prospects have been assigned to their respective junior teams: Yaroslav Bryzgalov (Medicine Hat Tigers), Adam Novotný (Peteborough Petes), Brooks Rogowski (Oshawa Generals), and Aleksei Medvedev (London Knights).

That leaves 31 players remaining on the NHL roster: 18 forwards, nine defencemen, and four goaltenders:

Forwards: Arshdeep Bains, Brock Boeser, Filip Chytil, Braeden Cootes, Paul Cotter, Jake DeBrusk, Brendan Gallagher, Linus Karlsson, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Mackenzie MacEachern, Drew O’Connor, Liam Öhgren, Elias Pettersson, Aatu Räty, Marco Rossi, Max Sasson, Matthew Steinburg, and Akil Thomas.

Defencemen: Guillaume Brisebois, Zeev Buium, Filip Hronek, Victor Mancini, Jamie Oleksiak, Elias Pettersson, Luke Schenn, Jack Thompson, and Tom Willander.

Goalies: Thatcher Demko, Chris Driedger, Kevin Lankinen, and Nikita Tolopilo.

MacEachern, Thomas, Thompson, and Demko did not participate with the main group at training camp due to injuries and are unlikely to suit up in any preseason action. This leaves 16 forwards, eight defencemen, and three goaltenders vying for the 23 opening-night roster spots.

Notable names that remain on the roster are Bains, Cootes, Lekkerimäki, and Stienburg up front, and Mancini on the back end.

Bains and Cootes have shown strong chemistry in their two preseason games, scoring the primary points on all three of the Canucks’ exhibition goals. Lekkerimäki had a pair of helpers – both secondary – in his lone preseason appearance, paired with the former two. Stienburg has shown his value in his aggressive play. With Mancini remaining on the roster while Kudryavtsev was part of this wave of cuts, it strongly suggests he has won the seventh defenceman spot for opening night.

The Canucks will play in preseason Games 3 and 4 on Thursday and Saturday. With the roster trimmed to this many, it appears Canucks fans in attendance will see dress rehearsals of what opening night could look like.