At long last, the Vancouver Canucks open their 2024 preseason slate with a 7 p.m. home tilt with the visiting Seattle Kraken at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night.
With a handful of injuries still hanging over the team, the Canucks will have plenty of roster battles to watch in the coming days. Whether those roster spots are permanent or temporary will be decided later, but the door is open.
According to Sportsnet 650's Brendan Batchelor, here is how the Canucks lined up at morning skate ahead of their opening exhibition contest:
Line 1
Brock Boeser - Pius Suter - Jonathan Lekkerimaki
Line 2
Nils Hoglander - Aatu Raty - Conor Garland
Line 3
Danton Heinen - Nils Aman - Linus Karlsson
Line 4
Vilmer Alriksson - Max Sasson - Sammy Blais
Defense
Pairing 1
Elias Pettersson - Filip Hronek
Pairing 2
Christian Wolanin - Tyler Myers
Pairing 3
Derek Forbort - Mark Friedman
Goalies
Latvian youngster Arturs Silovs is expected to get the start against the Kraken, with prospect Ty Young backing him up.
At the time of this writing, no potential Kraken lineup has surfaced.
Tuesday morning skate #Canucks lines
— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) September 24, 2024
Boeser. Suter. Lekkerimäki.
Höglander. Räty. Garland.
Heinen. Åman. Karlsson.
Alriksson. Sasson. Blais.
Pettersson. Hronek.
Wolanin. Myers.
Forbort. Friedman.
Šilovs.
Young.@Sportsnet650 pic.twitter.com/FaqfdAoHDU
One of the most important things to watch tonight is how Jonathan Lekkerimaki, a former first-round pick with a strong chance of making the Canucks outright, holds up playing top minutes alongside Pius Suter and Brock Boeser.
From a stylistic standpoint, Nils Hoglander and Conor Garland make sense together, though it's less likely that Aatu Raty is the center for them during the regular season.
NHL coaches sometimes like to keep lines together in duos so that they only have to rotate one player, so that's something to keep in mind for tonight's game against the Kraken.