Vancouver Canucks: Solving the Anton Rodin Situation

Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins can’t find a place for winger Anton Rodin in the lineup. How can he deal with the issue going forward?

In Saturday’s 3-1 loss against the Calgary Flames, the Vancouver Canucks were two defencemen short, as Ben Hutton and Chris Tanev were out with injuries. As a result, head coach Willie Desjardins was forced to play with just five D-men, allowing him to dress Anton Rodin as a 13th forward.

Through 60 minutes, Rodin did not get a single shift. Desjardins explained the situation this morning, saying Rodin still wasn’t 100 percent healthy: “Rodin banged up his knee the night before. He wasn’t 100 percent good.”

But is it the truth?

If Rodin wasn’t 100 percent good to go, what’s the point of dressing him at all? Desjardins added he wanted Rodin in case a forward was going to fill in on defence, opening up a spot in the forward lineup. But shouldn’t he have known whether he wanted a forward on ‘D’ by the time the game started? Would it make sense to have Rodin fill in on the fourth if he wasn’t healthy?

Honestly, the reasoning doesn’t quite make sense.

Luckily, Desjardins added more:

“If you look at Skille, Skille got about two and a half minutes a period. So if I divide up Skille’s ice time with Rodin, then they each get a minute and a half. Well, that’s hard for both players then. If you’re only getting a minute and a half per period, it’s hard to be on top of your game.

“(…) Once he sits past 10 minutes, it’s hard to get him back in.”

There, he’s got a point.

Anyone who’s ever played hockey, whether it was as a kid or in beer league, knows sitting on the bench can be tough. For a little while, it’s all good to recover. But the longer you sit, the harder it gets to step back on the ice for the next shift and be at 100 percent right away.

The Feel Bad Factor

Desjardins is right, it wouldn’t make sense to throw Rodin in for a shift or two after he’s sat on the bench for 10 minutes or more. That, again, leads us to the question why he dressed Rodin at all.

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However, looking at it objectively, Desjardins didn’t do anything wrong. We all just feel really bad for Rodin.

While most hockey fans dream of sitting on an NHL bench for 60 minutes during a game, it seems like the worst thing that could happen to an actual player.

Desjardins wanted insurance in case another player got injured, which can always happen. But, as long as it didn’t, he was fine with the lineup he had.

It doesn’t matter whether Rodin was at 100 percent or not, it was a coaching decision that made sense. We all feel bad for Rodin and his development, but that really isn’t what this is about.

Moving Forward

Still, the Canucks need to find a way to deal with the situation in the future.

What Desjardins said today sounded a lot like he wanted Rodin in the lineup but currently had no chance to put him in:

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“I met him this morning, his chance will come with our team. He is a player I want because I believe he can help us. (…) I told him ‘you’re going to have to be patient.'”

Rodin is currently the 13th forward; Reid Boucher is waiting to get a chance with his new club as well. Yet, finding space doesn’t seem too hard.

If you ask any Canucks fan how to solve the issue, they will likely say “demote Jayson Megna or Michael Chaput.” It’s that easy.

In 25 games with Vancouver, Megna has three goals and one assist. Chaput has a goal and three assists in 30 games. Neither one has looked like a player that should be an NHL regular — especially not on the top line, which is where Megna has played for parts of the past weeks.

Both Megna and Chaput would have to clear waivers, but it is unlikely that they would be claimed. A lineup with Rodin could look like this:

Sedin — Sedin — Eriksson
Baertschi — Horvat — Burrows
Granlund — Sutter — Rodin
Skille — Gaunce — Megna

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Desjardins sees Rodin as a top-nine forward — which is what he is. On a line with Markus Granlund and Brandon Sutter, he might get a chance to return to his preseason form.

If Rodin really isn’t at 100 percent yet, Boucher can slot in on the Sutter line instead.

It really does seem easy.