Banged-up Vancouver Canucks shake up forward lines and defence pairs
Adam Foote may start getting tired of saying “next man up.”
But with eight players currently injured, that’s exactly the spot the Vancouver Canucks are in.
Based on the lines at morning skate in St. Louis, the Canucks are changing up every single defence pair and all but one of their forward lines.
The injuries are forcing the Canucks to put their two youngest defencemen into bigger roles.
Elias Pettersson skated on the top pair with Filip Hronek on Thursday morning. In just over 30 minutes playing together at 5-on-5 this season, the duo has a ghastly expected goals-for of 24.9 per cent, although the Canucks have outscored the opposition 2-1 with those two on the ice together.
Willander is playing up the lineup for Vancouver based on the injury crisis (Bob Frid/Imagn Images)
Rookie Tom Willander is also being thrust into a bigger role in the absence of Quinn Hughes, Derek Forbort and Victor Mancini. He was paired with Marcus Pettersson at practice, someone whom he spent some time skating alongside during training camp and preseason.
Willander had a decent NHL debut on Tuesday night against the Rangers, playing 12:37 overall. He also got some ice time on the power play and at 6-on-5.
Here are the rest of the Canucks lines at morning skate in St. Louis, according to Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy.
Forwards
Jake DeBrusk – Elias Pettersson – Brock Boeser
Evander Kane – Lukas Reichel – Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O’Connor – Aatu Räty – Mackenzie MacEachern
Arshdeep Bains – Max Sasson – Linus Karlsson
Defence
Elias Pettersson – Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson – Tom Willander
Pierre-Olivier Joseph – Tyler Myers
Mackenzie MacEachern will make his debut for the Canucks after being recalled yesterday due to the Conor Garland injury.
MacEachern will suit up against the team that drafted him, the St. Louis Blues, on Thursday. This will be his first NHL game since Dec. 30, 2023, when he suited up for the Blues in a 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Foote also chose to reunite the DeBrusk, Pettersson, Boeser line in the wake of Garland’s injury. He went back to that line for a couple of shifts in the third period of the loss to the Rangers after Garland exited the contest.
The only line that remains unchanged from Tuesday night is the Abbotsford Canucks trio of Arshdeep Bains, Max Sasson and Linus Karlsson.