The Vancouver Canucks have some tough decisions to make at the halfway point of the preseason and deciding what to do with Emerson Etem may be the toughest of them all.
It’s well known that the Vancouver Canucks have too many bottom-six forwards right now, and there is an intense battle going on in the preseason to determine who will be the six guys that get those spots.
Emerson Etem is one of those players fighting for a spot but hasn’t done anything to impress. Some of his lacklustre play can be attributed to recently becoming a father but coach Willie Desjardins isn’t cutting him any slack.
WD on if he'd cut Etem slack for his performance, because of his new baby: "Probably not".. Wow, says it all.
— Blake Price (@justBlakePrice) October 4, 2016
Etem was a phenom in junior with the WHL Medicine Hat Tigers alongside ex-Canuck Hunter Shinkaruk and was over a point per game for the entirety of his time in the league. Since turning pro, Etem has not yet shown any signs of being the talent that he was in junior.
His best season at the NHL level was last year, when Etem had 15 points in 58 games split between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks. Things started to look up for Etem in his final five games where he had four goals and five points. However, that hasn’t carried over to this year and it looks like he’s having the same issues that he told the New York Post he was aware of when the Rangers traded him to Vancouver.
"“It started right from preseason. I didn’t have great production. I was inconsistent [in] just overall play. I think it just bled to the regular season, then you’re trying to play catch-up. That’s what happened.”"
Etem was given the opportunity to play with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi in Monday’s game against the Coyotes in hopes that the offense would come. He managed to get two first-period shots but only finished with three for the game and had a game-worst corsi of 10 according to the Vancouver Courier’s Harrison Mooney.
It’s obvious Etem needs more time in the AHL to develop. At 24 years old, that isn’t a huge deal because lots of guys are late bloomers at the NHL level. It does provide a situation similiar to the one the Canucks faced with Frank Corrado last year because he needs to pass through waivers to get there.
With teams like the Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators and St. Louis Blues all battling injuries among their forwards right now, according to TSN’s Injury Report, there’s no guarantee that would happen.
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Losing Etem on waivers would be a tough pill for the Canucks to swallow because there is the potential that he finds his offensive abilities and starts to score at the NHL level. There’s also a chance that teams see what Etem has done and decide to pass on him and he gets that much needed time to develop in the AHL.
Etem has two games left to show that he can produce otherwise the Canucks will be left with no other option than to place him on waivers and hope for the best because Brendan Gaunce and Jack Skille have both shown they should be higher on the depth chart than Etem.