Vancouver Canucks: What Brandon Prust’s Exit Means
By David Joun
There goes another one of the Vancouver Canucks’ veterans through the waivers.
The Vancouver Canucks had to make another cut to make room for players returning from injury. They decided to get rid of Brandon Prust by putting him on waivers — and he went unclaimed.
So, Vancouver enters the most competitive segment of the season, the push for the playoffs, without one of their tough guys. Look at the lineup at the beginning of the season, and you can tell that Prust was essentially bumped by Emerson Etem and Linden Vey.
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Before the All-Stars, the Canucks were tied with the Anaheim Ducks at 51 points in the standings and two points back of the nearest playoff team, the Arizona Coyotes. The Ducks had games in hand.
Now on the last day of the All-Star break for the Canucks, Vancouver finds itself sixth from the bottom in the NHL league-wide standings, and separated from the playoffs by two teams.
It is a fine line between tanking and offloading the veterans for the sake of youth. A very fine line.
Cynically speaking, this is a tank move. You want your toughest guys for the playoff push. The Canucks are going to see the Ducks, the San Jose Sharks, and the L.A. Kings a combined total of nine times before the season’s end. I think you want a bit of Dorsett-Prust insurance for those games.
Technically speaking, this is a numbers move with the “youth movement” ribbon on it.
Roster space wise, the Canucks had to free up a spot for the return of captain Henrik Sedin. When Henrik was injured and his spot was open, the Canucks got Brandon Sutter back from his injury. The team was looking to trade Prust anyhow and they had no suitors.
Obvious choice to send him down to the AHL and take some cap relief.
The $950,000 that Vancouver saves should be instrumental when Dan Hamhuis comes back. According to Wednesday’s post-practice presser, Hamhuis should return from the long-term injury reserve this week.
That also means that the Canucks will need to free up another roster spot and make cap space for Hammer’s $4.5 million contract coming off the LTIR. With the Prust demotion, the second part got a whole lot easier for Jim Benning.
I’ve been wrong before, but I suppose that Vancouver will have to move another body through a trade or via waivers to make Hamhuis’s return happen. Be alert, Vancouver.
Lastly, I have to ask one underlying question.
“Why Prust?”
Again, it is another numbers game of age and contract. But based purely on the on-ice impact Prust, there is another case to be made.
Why not Derek Dorsett? You can see that Dorsett and Prust have nearly identical numbers. Dorsett is having one of the career-worst years with just nine points in 49 games and a minus-nine rating. Prust’s production, however, has not veered far from the 0.2 points per game that he put up last year.
Plus, Dorsett’s contract is slightly more expensive than Prust’s is this year.
Of course, Dorsett is 29 years old — two years younger than Prust. And Dorsett’s contract is rather large. He is signed until the end of the 2018-19 season at $2.65 million per year.
But again. Etem and Jake Virtanen are the ones that are forcing this move from the roster standpoint. They are right wingers. Dorsett is the natural right winger. Prust is a left winger. Then why is Prust getting the cut and Dorsett playing the weakside on left wing?
Just some thoughts for Prust’s sake.
Next: Canucks Looking to Sign Nikita Tryamkin
What do you think about Prust being sent down? Let us know in the comments!