Canucks announce second round of preseason roster cuts
The Vancouver Canucks officially have three less players returning to training camp.
On Sunday afternoon, the team took to Twitter, announcing that they had reduced their preseason roster for the second time.
According to General Manager Patrik Allvin, the Canucks will be without the services of forward Carson Focht, as well as defencemen Alex Kannok-Leipert and Quinn Schmiemann.
Focht, who was drafted 133rd overall at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, will return to the AHL, where he notched three goals, seven assists and 48 PIM in 41 games with Abbotsford last season.
Focht will be joined by Kannok-Leipert and Schmiemann, who were each released from their professional tryout and amateur tryout respectively.
Kannok-Leipert registered one goal, four assists and 32 PIM with Abbotsford last season while, Schmiemann, who was inked to a two-year deal this past offseason, is expected to stay within the Canucks organization after failing to receive a contract from the Tampa Bay Lightning, who originally drafted the blueliner in the sixth round back in 2019.
Although new to the AHL, Schmiemann will still bring lots of hockey experience from his WHL days.
The 6’2″ left-handed defenceman served as captain of the Kamloops Blazers last season, putting up 14 goals, 40 assists and 65 PIM, all three of which led the rest of the Blazers’ blueline.
Schmiemann was also named to the Second All-Star Team.
This round of preseason cuts comes just days after the Canucks organization announced their first round.
Focht, Kannok-Leipert and Schmiemann will join forwards Yushiroh Hirano, Cole Shepard, Connor Lockhart, defencemen Chad Nychuk, Matt Anderson, Dylan MacPherson and Kirill Kudryavtsev, as well as netminder Ty Young, bringing the roster down to 48 players.
It hasn’t exactly been the most promising start to preseason for the Canucks, who have lost all four of their exhibition contests, two of which saw the team get blanked by identical scores of 4-0.
The team also got dealt a bad injury hand, with forward Brock Boeser officially sidelined 3-4 weeks following successful hand surgery, as well as Ilya Mikheyev and Travis Dermott. All three injuries occurred early in training camp.
The Canucks will be looking to get back into the win column on Monday night, facing off against the Edmonton Oilers on the road. Puck drop is set for 6:00pm PST.
Next. The NHL's schedule is hurting the Cascadia Rivalry. dark
What are your thoughts on the latest round of cuts? Let us know in the comments!