Canucks GM Patrik Allvin: Development of prospects in Abbotsford ...

Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin acknowledged Wednesday that the development of young players in AHL Abbotsford, ready to fill in as depth players, played a big factor in him being willing to trade Anthony Beauvillier.

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Beauvillier had perhaps been a fit when he was first acquired in a trade last season from the New York Islanders, but he wasn’t this season, and Allvin shipped him to the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday.

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“We couldn’t provide him with ice time that I believe he deserved to be a top-nine player in the league,” Allvin told a scrum of reporters on the concourse of Thunderbird Arena at the University of B.C. on Wednesday.

Other teams might have just carried on with a $4.2-million player biding their time on the fourth line. Beauvillier was playing perfectly adequate hockey, but when you’re paid like he is, you are expected to be able to beat out others for roles higher in the lineup.

With Beauvillier, the fourth line was fine, but the job he was doing could easily be done by younger, cheaper players. And Allvin acknowledged this truth in his comments with the media.

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Yes, he said, the performance of young players in Abbotsford this season showed they are ready to take on bigger roles in the NHL, like the depth one that Beauvillier was filling before Tuesday.

“We’re fortunate to have Abbotsford down the road and that they are playing really well and a lot of players have been taking steps,” he said.

There was pressure on his roster spot from below, but there was also pressure all around him on the NHL roster too, Allvin said.

“I think he deserves more ice time and he’s a good player. But Höglander, Di Giuseppe, Garland, Joshua … all those guys have been playing pretty well,” he said.

Nils Åman, for instance, is a player that head coach Rick Tocchet really admires, and he was recalled late last week. The depth forward signed a two-year contract extension on the weekend, a statement about the Canucks’ vision of his utility now and in the seasons to come.

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Calgary Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom stops Vancouver Canucks’ Nils Aman  with help from Jordan Oesterle  during the first period during the pre-season in early October 2023. Photo by ETHAN CAIRNS /THE CANADIAN PRESS

He immediately benefits from Beauvillier’s departure. He started the year about 15th on the depth chart, but has swapped spots with Jack Studnicka it would seem, and with Beauvillier’s departure, he is now 13th on the list — and with Pius Suter out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, Åman is suddenly back in the lineup, playing in the fourth-line role that Tocchet clearly feels he is well-suited to.

The other young player who immediately benefits is Linus Karlsson, who impressed Tocchet in his NHL debut versus Calgary two weeks ago and was recalled Wednesday. Tocchet said he wasn’t sure when Karlsson would get back in the lineup, but he vowed that the lanky Swede would be back.

“I think he’s the type of guy that you’re always looking for, those wall guys that go to the net,” Tocchet said.

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Getting Beauvillier’s cap hit off the books also means the Canucks have some roster-building flexibility in front of them. But Allvin played coy about what his plans might be to use that cap space. The team still has Carson Soucy and Guillaume Brisebois on long-term injured reserve, he noted, so they aren’t accruing any cap space — they only have flexibility in how they manage the roster.

“Operating in LTIR, it’s tough. So that being said, this gives us a little bit of a flexibility to see where we can strengthen our current roster,” he said. When pressed, he said that, yes, he would like to add another defenceman to the mix.

The timing of the trade was intriguing, given that the Blackhawks had only just cleared the roster spot earlier in the day when they announced they were terminating Corey Perry’s contract for alleged violations of the terms of his contract and of the organization’s own workplace policies.

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But Allvin wouldn’t reveal if the trade had been sudden in developing or if he had had the trade lined up for some time.

“You’re always talking to teams and see what’s available and what teams are looking for. And where our needs are. So sometimes it takes longer and sometimes it goes quicker,” he said.

Ethan Bear skates with the puck in front of New Jersey Devils’ Nathan Bastian during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver on Nov. 1, 2022. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS

ICE CHIPS — Ex-Canuck Ethan Bear remains a free agent and has been rehabilitating in West Kelowna. His agent told Postmedia on the weekend his client was aiming to be ready to play by late December. Allvin said he had stayed in touch with Bear’s camp. “I’m sure he will reach out to us and other teams when he’s getting closer to being ready,” the GM said. … Allvin said there was still no timeline for a return for the concussed Guillaume Brisebois. … He said he speaks with agents for pending free agents Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek, but said there was no update in either camp.

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