Which players will round out the Canucks’ 23-man roster?

The majority of the Vancouver Canucks’ 23-man roster is set, but there are still a few spots left for new faces to join the team.

Even with many of their free agents leaving this offseason, the majority of the Vancouver Canucks’ opening night roster is pretty much set.

There are a few moves still left to be made, such as assigning Sven Baertschi to the minors and putting Micheal Ferland on LTIR. Jack Rathbone is also currently listed on the team, but there’s a good chance that he gets sent to the AHL to gain some more experience before carving out a full-time role in the NHL.

Without those three, Vancouver will still have 20 players on their roster and close to $4 million in cap space, and their team will look like this:

The best-case scenario would be for the Canucks to use that leftover money to add some much-needed depth by signing another free agent, but that seems unlikely given the cash crunch that the team’s operating under (per The Athletic, subscription required).

This means that Vancouver will probably promote from within, and the question then becomes: which three players will round out the team’s full 23-man roster?

First of all, we need to take a look at what positions lack players. The obvious answer would be on the backend, as the Canucks are only carrying five defencemen under the current team construction.

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This means that two of the three remaining spots will be filled by blueliners, with the last position likely to be taken by a forward.

Right now, there are four rookie defencemen fighting to make the Canucks: Rathbone, Olli Juolevi, Brogan Rafferty, and Jalen Chatfield.

As previously stated, Rathbone likely gets sent to the AHL since he’s the only one of the bunch who hasn’t played professionally yet.

Meanwhile, Chatfield seems like a longshot to make the team; even though he plays the most reliable defensive game out of that group, both Rafferty and Juolevi have previous NHL experience and have also put up much better numbers than him in the minors.

Simply put, it’ll be surprising if Juolevi and Rafferty don’t earn roster spots, barring any more signings that the Canucks might make.

With the blueline settled, it’s now time to see which forward will occupy the final spot on the team.

The two likeliest candidates are Nils Hoglander and Jayce Hawryluk. Hoglander has been playing against men in the SHL for more than two seasons now, while Hawryluk has suited up in 68 total NHL games.

Out of these options, I would give the edge to Hawryluk due to his familiarity with the North American rinks and previous NHL experience. There’s no doubt that Hoglander is the more intriguing player due to his higher potential, but he likely needs some time to get acclimated to the smaller ice rinks before becoming a full-time Canuck.

To summarize, I believe that Juolevi, Rafferty, and Hawryluk will earn the remaining three roster spots to fill out Vancouver’s team this season. The players who didn’t make the cut will likely end up on the Canucks’ “taxi squad,” which will be discussed in the near future. Let me know if you agree with my choices!