Vancouver Canucks General manager Patrik Allvin made a slew of trades following the team’s loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. And while Canucks fans have by now become quite accustomed to the old shuffling of prospects on the Trans-Canada Highway between Vancouver and Abbotsford, a few of those moves didn’t quite fit the particular pattern that the recalls and reassignments followed. until 2024/25, so we thought we’d take a minute to explain the goals behind them.

First, let’s look back at all of the week’s transactions.

On Tuesday, November 5, the Canucks sent Arshdeep Bains to Abbotsford and brought up Aatu Räty in his place. No particular ceiling here; the coaching staff was simply more interested in Räty playing center for Tuesday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks and Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings. The Canucks went without an extra forward for these games in order to accumulate more daily cap space (by having that extra forward in the AHL instead).

A few days later, on Friday, November 8, the Canucks traded Daniel Sprong to the Seattle Kraken for future considerations. This left two forward spots open on the roster, and they were filled on Saturday, November 9 by the recalls of Bains and Nils Åman, who had already been placed and cleared on waivers the previous week.

Now, Bains wasn’t ready for Saturday’s game against the Oilers. This was a bit odd, as having him up and in the press box costs the Canucks a small amount of daily cap accrual. What this tells us, without the Canucks announcing it as such, is that Bains was likely called up to cover for a forward nursing an injury, which could have been a game-time decision. (Maybe JT Miller? This is just speculation on our part.)

Regardless, with two days off between home games, Åman and Bains were quickly sent back to Abbotsford on Sunday morning. Goalkeeper Arturs Silovs joined them in this reassignment.

A team can’t have an active roster without two healthy goalies, and so with Silovs down, goaltender Ty Young was cut from Kalamazoo of the ECHL to spend a day on the NHL roster to take his place.

For those keeping track at home, our quick math indicates that this day in the NHL earned Young approximately $4,036 (his NHL base salary of $775,000 divided by a 192-day calendar), which which represents a significant increase from his usual daily salary of around $390. ($75,000/192).

It was easy to understand the purpose of this switcheroo. Silovs has only made four appearances this season, and it hasn’t exactly gone well. He traveled to Abbotsford to play and he did, starting for the Abbotsford Canucks on Sunday against Bakersfield and making 27 saves for the 4-2 victory.

But Jonathan Lekkerimäki was recalled at the same time as Young, and that one is a little harder to figure out.

The general reason is quite simple. Lekkerimäki recalled to replace Brock Boeser during the latter’s absence due to an upper body injury caused by a low blow from Tanner Jeannot. Indeed, Lekkerimäki went directly to Boeser’s place on JT Miller’s right wing for Sunday’s practice sessions.

But with the Canucks not playing until Tuesday, one wonders why Lekkerimäki’s recall wasn’t postponed until then. With the Canucks having already fired Åman and Bains, they could have saved Lekkerimäki’s recall for later and gained a few extra days by not having his contract on the books.

The size of the list was not a problem. It’s true that Lekkerimäki is only the 12th^th healthy on the Canucks’ active roster, with Dakota Joshua still on injured reserve (IR). But a team only needs 18 healthy skaters, of any variety, to make a legal roster. The same goes for the eight defensemen currently on the list (Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Carson Soucy, Tyler Myers, Vincent Desharnais, Derek Forbort (injured, but not yet placed on IR), Erik Brännström and Noah Juulsen) and the 10 forwards not exempt from waiver (Elias Pettersson, Miller, Boeser (not yet on IR either), Jake DeBrusk, Conor Garland, Danton Heinen, Teddy Blueger, Pius Suter, Kiefer Sherwood and Nils Höglander), the Canucks already have a list legal – even though we all know that some of these players aren’t actually ready to play.

From what we know, the Canucks not only could have waited until Tuesday to recall Lekkerimäki, but they also could have sent Räty to Abbotsford Sunday alongside Åman, Bains and Silovs, and in doing so they could have accrued more cap space on Sunday and Monday.

But they didn’t. Instead, they kept Räty awake and recalled Lekkerimäki, which raises the obvious question of why. And the answer must be found on the ice, like what already happened on the ice on Sunday. With apologies to Allen Iverson, we’re talking practice.

Given that Lekkerimäki has been in Abbotsford since training camp, the impetus to give him as many reps as possible on Miller’s wing in practice before dressing for his first NHL game is pretty obvious . It’s true that he could have been called up on Tuesday, but then he would enter Tuesday night’s game with only one game practice under his belt, and that’s not ideal. This way, Lekkerimäki definitely has a better chance of making a successful debut.

Meanwhile, Räty is currently the team’s fourth-line center. He played there in the last two games and practiced there again on Sunday. For him, being there during these two days of rest is as simple as currently being considered a real and somewhat fixed part of the team. He remains the team’s only right-handed faceoff option, and it’s proving more and more valuable as the season progresses. Having him on the ice in practice right now is much more essential than, say, Bains, who would be skating as an extra runner in the line.

Combine these factors above with the fact that, with Boeser off the ice, Räty and Lekkerimäki only needed to have four full forward lines to rotate during drills, and it’s clear that training was the reason they spent Sunday and Monday in Vancouver instead of Abbotsford.

(And while we’re on the subject, let’s go ahead and predict that one of Bains or Åman will be called back to join them before Tuesday’s game for the aforementioned reason of covering potential injuries.)

It’s true that these picks cost the Canucks a few thousand dollars in potential cap accumulation. However, saving spending space for the trade deadline is only one factor to consider in running a hockey team. Here, having these players available to work directly with the coaching staff and their NHL teammates was clearly more important than a few dollars.