After two preseason games, the Vancouver Canucks still had a roster of 48 players.
The Canucks will need to pare that down to a 23-man roster (or less) in less than two weeks' time, as final rosters have to be submitted to the NHL by October 7 ahead of the regular season. Assuming that Thatcher Demko will still be on the Injured Reserve by opening night, the Canucks need to cut at least 24 players in 12 days.
That's two cuts per day, so it makes sense that the Canucks made two cuts on Thursday, placing Jett Woo and Guillaume Brisebois on waivers for the purpose of sending them down to the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL.
As always, Pass it to Bulis is here to explain every cut, even if they're fairly easy to understand this early on. So, why did Woo and Brisebois get the chop? Let's break it down.
Jett Woo has a long ladder to climb
A couple of years ago, it seemed like Jett Woo's development slammed into a brick wall. His first two seasons in the AHL were not pretty. After a solid major junior career, Woo managed just 13 points in 70 games and ended up as a healthy scratch. There were even times that when he did get in the lineup, it was as a fourth-line forward.
In the last two seasons, however, Woo has revitalized his prospects as a prospect. The 24-year-old took on big minutes in Abbotsford, playing a physical shutdown game and chipping in points, putting up 31 points in 62 games last season. He even earned a call-up to the NHL last season when Carson Soucy got injured, though he didn't get into the lineup for any games.
Here's the issue for Woo: the Canucks have a whole bunch of other right-shot defencemen.
At the NHL level, the Canucks have Filip Hronek, Tyler Myers, and Vincent Desharnais in the lineup, then Noah Juulsen and Mark Friedman as the likely seventh and eighth defencemen. Even if the Canucks have a couple of injuries on the right side, the Canucks have right-shot defencemen ready to fill in, so it will be tough for Woo to get called up.
If an opportunity for a call-up does come, Woo will have to compete with Cole McWard, though McWard is currently on the shelf recovering from offseason surgery for a lower-body injury. The Canucks also have Christian Felton, signed as a college free agent, who had a solid Young Stars Classic and is still on the team's roster.
At this year's camp and in his one preseason game, Woo showed some confidence jumping up in the offensive zone, but had some defensive troubles. He has some work to do to get called up this season.
Guillaume Brisebois hoping for a healthy season
Just one player has been in the Canucks' organization longer than Guillaume Brisebois: Brock Boeser and only because he was picked in the first round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and Brisebois was picked the next day in round 3. And Brisebois actually signed with the Canucks before Boeser.
Despite that, the 27-year-old Brisebois has played just 27 games in the NHL. His biggest inroad came in the 2022-23 season, when he played 17 games and finally scored his first career NHL goal eight years after he was drafted.
Any hope of building off that year was crushed in the final game of the 2023 preseason when he took a high hit from Seattle Kraken forward Brandon Tanev. That injury put him on the Injured Reserve for almost the entire season with what was suspected to be post-concussion syndrome, though the Canucks never officially confirmed.
Brisebois eventually felt good enough to get into games in the AHL, playing eight games in the regular season as the team ramped up for the playoffs. Unfortunately, his symptoms resurfaced and he missed the entire playoffs.
Fortunately, Brisebois is feeling much better after an offseason of recovery and there have been no reported issues as he dealt with the contact of training camp. Working his way back up to the NHL is a secondary concern — right now, it's just about making sure he's fully healthy and can get back to playing the game he loves.
It's a testament to how well-liked Brisebois is as a person and how low-maintenance he is as a player that he's stuck with the same organization for nine years, toiling in the minors for the vast majority of that time.
Vancouver Canucks remaining roster
The Canucks still have 26 forwards, 17 defencemen, and 5 goaltenders at camp, including players who are currently out with injuries or rehab.
Here's the roster, arranged into a vague approximation of lines and pairings:
FORWARDS
Danton Heinen - J.T. Miller - Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk - Elias Pettersson - Jonathan Lekkerimäki
Nils Höglander - Aatu Räty - Conor Garland
Arshdeep Bains - Pius Suter - Daniel Sprong
Phil Di Giuseppe - Max Sasson - Kiefer Sherwood
Sammy Blais - Nils Åman - Linus Karlsson
Vilmer Alriksson - Nate Smith - Danila Klimovich
Tristen Nielsen - Ty Mueller - Chase Wouters
IR
Teddy Blueger
Dakota Joshua
DEFENCEMEN
Quinn Hughes - Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy - Vincent Desharnais
Christian Wolanin - Tyler Myers
Derek Forbort - Mark Friedman
Sawyer Mynio - Noah Juulsen
Elias Pettersson - Kirill Kudryavtsev
Akito Hirose
Christian Felton
IR
Cole McWard
GOALTENDERS
Arturs Silovs
Nikita Tolopilo
Jiri Patera
Ty Young
IR
Thatcher Demko
