Waived: [VAN] F Sheldon Dries, D Matt Irwin, D Jack Rathbone, G Zach Sawchenko, D Jett Woo waived by the Canucks (cleared)

[MMC]

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[SEALBound]

A little surprised to see Jack Rathbone on waivers. Would be a decent pick up for a couple needs need that depth dman.

 

[Petey O]

A little surprised to see Jack Rathbone on waivers. Would be a decent pick up for a couple needs need that depth dman.

He's atrocious. Teams would be doing the Canucks a favour taking him. Frees up a contract slot.

 

[Peter Griffin]

A little surprised to see Jack Rathbone on waivers. Would be a decent pick up for a couple needs need that depth dman.

He’s worse than Ty Smith.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Feels like Rathbone got his shot last year and didn't do enough with it, fair Canucks fans?

We were talking about this on the Devils board, with how Ty Smith seemingly can't crack the league. If you have 4FWD/1D pp units now, and you really only care about PP1, you need to be absolutely elite offensively if your role is "PP QB" these days to get an NHL job. Seems like Rathbone is not good enough offensively or defensively from where I'm sitting (not really paying close attention admittedly).

 

[SEALBound]

Wow, I didn't realize he had fallen? I thought he was a decent bottom pairing dman. He's only 24...

 

[gianni]

Had high hopes for Jett Woo & Jack Rathbone. They either reached their ceiling already, or they don't want it bad enough.

 

[Three On Zero]

Wow, I didn't realize he had fallen? I thought he was a decent bottom pairing dman. He's only 24...

He’s decent offensively but piss poor defensively. Getting McWard and Hirose made him very expendable. A good em defensively structured team may want to take a flyer on him

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Friedman is crushed that Rathbone is on waivers.

 

[Kshahdoo]

Woo should go to Kunlun.

 

[Mitch nylander]

Surprised to see Podkolzin being sent down again.

 

[Tempo]

We Canucks fans like to overhype all our draft picks and reality is always very different from our expectations.

Also, Benning’s drafting/scouting skills is overrated.

 

[biturbo19]

He’s worse than Ty Smith.

Yeah. In a similar sort of niche, the only thing he's maybe got on Ty Smith is the skating. But he's worse in pretty much everything else. Doesn't have nearly the all-around potential that Ty at least briefly showed in the NHL.

Feels like Rathbone got his shot last year and didn't do enough with it, fair Canucks fans?

We were talking about this on the Devils board, with how Ty Smith seemingly can't crack the league. If you have 4FWD/1D pp units now, and you really only care about PP1, you need to be absolutely elite offensively if your role is "PP QB" these days to get an NHL job. Seems like Rathbone is not good enough offensively or defensively from where I'm sitting (not really paying close attention admittedly).

Part of it is that he was never going to have a shot on a Canucks team with Quin Hughes. Just utterly redundant. No need for a much much much worse version of the same guy. Especially with what you're saying about the Powerplay realities. Teams really only need 2 PPQB defencemen...and the 2nd one doesn't even really need to be that great. Could even just be a guy with a big shot or something.

Makes it really hard to justify keeping a "powerplay/offensive specialist" defenceman on the roster...when what you really need is a warehouse full of guys you can cycle through the tough minutes 5v5 and especially to try to lessen the load on any individual defencemen on the PK.


If there's a team out there who desperately need powerplay help and have a very niche little roster spot to let him play that role as a specialist, maybe you can still get some utility out of Rathbone. But that's largely just...bad teams. Who would ultimately be looking to replace him anyway.

 

[biturbo19]

Surprised to see Podkolzin being sent down again.

If you'd watched him in the preseason, you wouldn't be surprised.

He just continues to look very lost, timid, and indecisive on the ice. Makes him pretty useless. Especially when the whole point of him as a prospect/player is that he's supposed to be a big, heavy, gritty sort of complementary winger.

Seems to work plenty hard, and seems serious about trying to improve. But ultimately just seems like he's completely in his own head at this point, overthinking everything...and not nearly a smart enough player to be doing that much thinking.

So it's not surprising. Just...disappointing.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Yeah. In a similar sort of niche, the only thing he's maybe got on Ty Smith is the skating. But he's worse in pretty much everything else. Doesn't have nearly the all-around potential that Ty at least briefly showed in the NHL.



Part of it is that he was never going to have a shot on a Canucks team with Quin Hughes. Just utterly redundant. No need for a much much much worse version of the same guy. Especially with what you're saying about the Powerplay realities. Teams really only need 2 PPQB defencemen...and the 2nd one doesn't even really need to be that great. Could even just be a guy with a big shot or something.

Makes it really hard to justify keeping a "powerplay/offensive specialist" defenceman on the roster...when what you really need is a warehouse full of guys you can cycle through the tough minutes 5v5 and especially to try to lessen the load on any individual defencemen on the PK.


If there's a team out there who desperately need powerplay help and have a very niche little roster spot to let him play that role as a specialist, maybe you can still get some utility out of Rathbone. But that's largely just...bad teams. Who would ultimately be looking to replace him anyway.

The Hurricanes and how they are making DeAngelo a useful piece behind Burns next year is the exception I think. Maybe some team has the vision to do something similar with Rathbone but seems highly unlikely. He's just a guy that was great in college but not good enough for the NHL, there are many, it's just another game entirely with the speed/skill levels involved.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Future top pairing guy Jet Woo will surely get claimed.

 

[biturbo19]

The Hurricanes and how they are making DeAngelo a useful piece behind Burns next year is the exception I think. Maybe some team has the vision to do something similar with Rathbone but seems highly unlikely. He's just a guy that was great in college but not good enough for the NHL, there are many, it's just another game entirely with the speed/skill levels involved.

I'm still kind of in...Jury's out mode on whether that Burns-DeAngelo thing is even really going to work that well tbh. I'll believe it when it see it.

But yeah...it's just a really tough niche to fit into a roster. There are also just a flood of these smallish offensively-inclined D who are all desperately vying for those same few limited potential role opportunities.


To be fair to Rathbone...he's also posted some pretty impressive looking numbers at the AHL level. The offensive aspect of his game at least translated to the Pro level beyond college. But when the other aspects just aren't there at an NHL caliber...it's next to impossible to justify keeping him around on that big club roster to even see if his offensive skills can translate to the highest level.

 

[Breakers]

Tyler Myers needs to be catapulted into the sun

 

[AHLdepth]

If anyone from this group should be claimed (*narrator* they shouldn't) it would be Jett Woo. He hasn't shown much on offense, but the latter part of last season he started to show the attributes that got him drafted physicality, positioning, decent skating in a way that was starting to look like a difference maker. Whether he can continue that and get those skills to NHL caliber? To be seen, but he's the only one out of this group that gets one last season of "wait and see" for me

 

[CapSpace]

Tyler Myers needs to be catapulted into the sun

Please keep a seat for Gallagher while at it.

 

[McJedi]

Podkolzin to the AHL. He can’t be waiver exempt much longer.

 

[Richard88]

Podkolzin to the AHL. He can’t be waiver exempt much longer.

Wouldn't mind the Avs trying to acquire him as a reclamation project if he continued to falter in Vancouver. His skillset matches what the Avs tend to like in their wingers.

 

[McJedi]

Wouldn't mind the Avs trying to acquire him as a reclamation project if he continued to falter in Vancouver. His skillset matches what the Avs tend to like in their wingers.

Timid and low hockey IQ?

He’d probably be wise at this point to use his AHL time to develop 3rd line skills. PK, playing the body, defensively locked in and aggressive. Good at the cycle and puck protection. Become a Miles Wood type.

 

[Richard88]

Timid and low hockey IQ?

He’d probably be wise at this point to use his AHL time to develop 3rd line skills. PK, playing the body, defensively locked in and aggressive. Good at the cycle and puck protection. Become a Miles Wood type.

Tenacious hardworking and puck-hounding winger is what I was referring to. Not sure the skill to be a high scorer is there, but guys like Lehkonen and Nichushkin have been successful with the Avs with a hard working style.