The excitement level for Vancouver Canucks fans has been turned up a notch, ahead of Wednesday night's regular season home opener versus the Calgary Flames. As confirmed by the team, general manager Patrik Allvin announced their opening day roster on Monday.
So what does this all mean? Here are our five takeaways from the announcement of the Canucks opening day roster for the 2024-25 season:
Canucks decide between Räty and Bains
1) There were plenty who believed it was effectively a straight choice between Aatu Räty and Arshdeep Bains, for who would get a valuable roster spot for opening day. Both forwards had impressed throughout training camp and during preseason, so there was a lot of anticipation surrounding the duo.
In the end, Allvin and the Cancucks plumped for Räty, but it was a tough call that clearly went down to the wire. In this respect Bains has been assigned to the Canucks' AHL affiliate in Abbotsford, but the (very strong) chances are that he will be back in Vancouver at some point in the coming months.
2) Injury concerns have undoubtedly been a bugbear for Allvin and company in recent weeks, with the very real spectre of having to utilise Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) hanging over the Canucks. However, the situation started clear up, thanks to Akito Hirose being cleared to play again and Pius Suter returning to practice and no longer wearing a non-contact jersey on Sunday.
However, what really secured things was a piece of magic from Allvin, as he was able to trade away Tucker Poolman and all but $500,000 of his $2.5 million salary for the 2024-25 campaign. As a result, both Thatcher Demko and Dakota Joshua were able to be placed on the season-opening injury non-roster, rather than the Canucks having to go down the LTIR route.
More good news on the injury front
3) Similar to Suter, the sight of Conor Garland on the opening day roster alludes to him also seemingly close to being ready to play again. Garland was a late scratch from the Canucks' final preseason contest after tweaking something on the morning of the game.
Now in fairness, it was always more a case of the Canucks just being cautious with the forward, with head coach Rick Tocchet indicating at the time that he could have played if it was an important game. Regardless, seeing Garland on the opening day roster removes pretty much any concern there might be among fans.
4) Turning to the financial implications of the Canucks' opening day roster, we again make reference to how much better the situation is, now that LTIR is not necessary. At least not as things currently stand.
As per PuckPedia, at the time of writing the Canucks have $479,166 of cap space, and with a full 23-man roster no less. (13 forwards, eight defencemen and two goalies.) Assuming that nothing changes between now and the trade deadline, they are projected to accrue $2,190,473 of cap space by this point. (The NHL trade deadline for this season is Mar. 8, 2025
5) This last takeaway can be seen more as general housekeeping rather than making any particular point. To begin with, the Canucks re-acquired Jiri Patera off the waiver wire on Monday, and they were able to assign him to Abbotsford as they were the only team to put a claim in for the goalie.
Second, defenceman Erik Brannstrom who was acquired by the Canucks as part of the Poolman trade, has also been assigned to Abbotsford after clearing waivers. Finally, it's good to see Mark Friedman on the opening day roster, as there was genuine concern he might have to be placed on waivers with everything else which was happening surrounding the team.