Photo credit: Bob Frid – Imagn Images.
The Vancouver Canucks have announced several roster moves following Wednesday night’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, their final game before the Olympic break.
Head coach Adam Foote decided to shake up the team’s forward lines a bit amid an injury to Filip Chytil, with Conor Garland shifting down to the third line, while Drew O’Connor earned a promotion to the top trio alongside Elias Pettersson and Evander Kane.
Unfortunately, the Canucks extended their losing skid to three games after falling to the Golden Knights by a score of 5-2 and shortly afterwards, announced a slew of roster moves.
Vancouver Canucks announce roster moves following Wednesday loss in Vegas
In a post on social media, the Vancouver Canucks announced that forward Jonathan Lekkerimaki, defenseman Victor Mancini and goaltender Nikita Tolopilo have been assigned to the American Hockey League for the Olympic break.
Additionally, the Canucks have called up goaltender Jiri Patera from the Abbotsford Canucks under emergency conditions because even though they’re not playing again until Wednesday, February 25th, the club still needs to have two goaltenders on the active roster.
“General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today the following Olympic break transactions. F Jonathan Lekkerimäki, D Victor Mancini, and G Nikita Tolopilo have been to assigned to Abbotsford (AHL), and G Jiri Patera has been recalled from Abbotsford under emergency conditions.” the Canucks said.
There were some tough decisions that the Vancouver Canucks needed to make leading up to Patrik Allvin announcing the club’s roster moves on Wednesday, as while it was inevitable that Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Victor Mancini were going to be sent down, they also had to figure out if Liam Ohgren, Tom Willander or Elias Pettersson would also be heading to Abbotsford, but any transaction involving those three would’ve had to be completed prior to the 12 p.m. PT roster freeze yesterday.
The Abbotsford Canucks currently sit ten points out of a playoff spot in the American Hockey League’s Pacific Division and while that’s a big hole to climb out of, getting Lekkerimaki, Mancini and Tolopilo back for the majority of February is certainly going to help them in a big way as they chase their fifth straight postseason appearance.
Abbotsford will be back in action on Friday night as they open up a four-game home stand against the San Jose Barracuda, AHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks.
Previously on Vancouver Hockey Daily
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Vancouver Canucks announce the sudden departure of three key prospects one day before the Olympic break
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