How Jiri Patera's return affects Canucks prospects

The Vancouver Canucks brought back goalie Jiri Patera, who was first lost on waivers to the Boston Bruins, on Monday afternoon.

While the move to bring back Patera, who signed a two-year contract with the team on the opening day of NHL free agency, restores the team's goalie depth, there are still pros and cons to the move.

The main benefit, of course, is the fact that Patera has NHL experience. All-Star Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko is still reportedly a few weeks to a month away from returning to game action, which leaves rookie sensation Arturs Silovs and prized free agent signing Kevin Lankinen to tend to the crease in the interim.

If Silovs or Lankinen were to miss any games for the Canucks for any reason, Patera is the next man up. And while Patera has never played extensively at the NHL level, he at least some experience and can probably be relied upon to hold his own in a pinch.

On the other hand, Patera was assigned to the AHL to play with the Abbotsford Canucks in the meantime. This means more ice time for the 25-year-old, and less ice time for Canucks prospects like the Belarusian Nikita Tolopilo and 2022 fifth-round pick Ty Young, who is turning pro this year.

Tolopilo is heading into his second full season playing hockey in North America, while Young, 20, is just a few days too old to return to the WHL for one last season.

Both Tolopilo and Young need reps and games to develop, and if they're sharing time with Patera, it could be hard for any of the three goalies to develop some semblance of rhythm.

From the Canucks' perspective, though, I'm sure they would rather have the NHL depth now and work out the AHL and (potentially) ECHL situations later.