Good fortune and some Patrik Allvin magic resolves Canucks LTIR issue

There's an old saying that most of you will be familiar with, when someone says they'd rather be lucky than good. However, events on Sunday saw both things being true for the Vancouver Canucks.

We've written recently about the spectre of Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) looming over the organisation. More specifically, that the Canucks would need to rely on it very soon, as opposed to their preferred plan to hold off on utilising it until around the time of this season's trade deadline.

Well, now a couple of things have happened, which seem to indicate the Canucks can avoid the use of LTIR, both short and (hopefully for them) long-term. The first involves a couple of injury issues the team has been dealing with recently to Akito Hirose and Pius Suter, with a concussion and upper-body injury respectively.

Hirose now in the clear and Suter not far behind

Well, Hirose was medically cleared to return to action on Saturday -- admittedly slightly earlier than anticipated, but of course still excellent news. As a result, the Canucks were able to assign the blue-liner to Abbotsford.

As for Suter, he is now back practising with the main team and was wearing a regular jersey on Sunday. This of course represents positive steps in his return from the unsubstantiated injury he sustained in a seemingly innocuous scuffle with Corey Perry of the Edmonton Oilers.

Turning to the being good aspect, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin weaved some of his magic on Sunday, which undoubtedly helps their injury/LTIR situation. It involved finally getting Tucker Poolman off the books, for the most part.

As confirmed by the team on their official site, the Canucks have been able to trade Poolman to the Colorado Avalanche, along with a 2025 NHL entry draft fourth round pick. In return, they have acquired defenceman Erik Brannstrom.

Allvin shared his thoughts on the trade via the team's press release. He said: "Erik is a dynamic skater and skilled player who adds to our depth on the backend. We would like to thank Tucker for his time in Vancouver. It was extremely unfortunate that he was unable to continue his career here due to injury and we wish him nothing but the best moving forward."

Poolman's contract off the books ... mostly

Brannstrom was subsequently placed on waivers, with the intention of assigning him to Abbotsford. However, the main thing to come out of all this, was getting rid of the final season of Poolman's four-year deal with the Canucks.

Now to be clear, the Cancucks are retaining 20 percent of Poolman's contract for the 2024-25 season. However, only having to deal with $500,000 is undoubtedly significantly better than keeping his full salary of $2.5 million.

This in turn opens up other doors such as, for example, potentially keeping the likes of Aatu Räty on their roster and not having to waive a Mark Friedman. Along these lines, the Canucks have until 2 p.m. PT on Monday to confirm their opening night roster.

We do of course feel bad for Poolman on the human side of things, with him set to miss an entire second consecutive season with lingering post-concussion issues such as migraines. However, this doesn't change the reality that the Canucks are now in a much better situation minus his contract.

Not that all of the Canucks' problems have disappeared, with Thatcher Demko and Dakota Joshua's respective timelines for returning to action still unclear. However, they are at least now in no need of using LTIR effectively as soon as the regular season begins, which would have been a disastrous outcome for the organisation.

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