On Wednesday, the Vancouver Canucks sent Aatu Räty down to the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL.
It's a move that likely has less to do with Räty himself than with roster management. While Räty hasn't been quite as good to start the regular season as he was in the preseason, when he won a spot in the Canucks' lineup, he hasn't been all that bad either.
At the same time, Räty has averaged less than ten minutes per game in ice time. Head coach Rick Tocchet likely wants to try some other line combinations after dropping the first three games of the season, which could mean a healthy scratch for Räty. At this point, it's better if Räty gets big minutes in the AHL again to get his mojo back.
All of that is a corollary to the real reason Räty is getting sent down; the Canucks are calling up Erik Brännström.
Reports indicated Erik Brännström will be called up
According to reports by both Irfaan Gaffar and Rick Dhaliwal, the Canucks are calling up Brännstrom from Abbotsford to join the team ahead of Thursday's game against the Florida Panthers. While he has not been officially called up yet, that likely has to do with salary cap accrual shenanigans: every day that the team is under the salary cap, they accrue space that can be used later in the season, so a day with 22 players on the roster instead of 23 is beneficial.
Assuming the Canucks officially call up Brännström on Thursday, he could be in the Canucks' lineup against the Panthers but it's also possible that he practices with the team first before getting inserted into the lineup.
The Canucks traded for Brännström as part of a deal that was primarily designed to clear cap space. They sent Tucker Poolman and a fourth-round pick to the Colorado Avalanche to clear $2 million of Poolman's $2.5 million cap hit and received Brännström in return, immediately placing him on waivers to assign him to the AHL.
The Canucks could have kept Brännström around after trading for him rather than risking him getting claimed on waivers — they waived Mark Friedman two days later anyway — but it worked out. Brännström cleared waivers and was still available now, a week into the season, to get called up.
So, why is Brännström getting called up now?
Canucks defencemen have struggled to move the puck up ice
The simple answer is that the Canucks haven't been good enough to start the 2024-25 season, dropping their first three games while getting out-scored 7-to-4 at 5-on-5 and 12-to-8 in all situations. It's early yet, so there's no need to panic, but the Canucks need to get back on track before this losing streak gets out of hand.
When a team is struggling like the Canucks, that's typically when they start tinkering with the lineup and roster looking for a solution. It makes perfect sense to call up the player on their AHL roster with the most NHL experience to see if he can help out.
The more complicated answer is the specific ways the Canucks haven't been good enough.
Heading into training camp, Tocchet wanted to instill a more aggressive offensive system. The emphasis was on playing a faster, riskier style that would better take advantage of opportunities in transition and create more chances off the rush. The team's drills focused on fast breakouts, quick neutral-zone regroups, and the defence jumping up in the rush.
Tocchet's offseason deep dive on the Canucks' systems convinced him that becoming more dangerous in transition was necessary for the Canucks to take the next step after their offence dried up in the playoffs.
The trouble is, the Canucks might not have the defence corps to play that style.
Beyond the top pairing of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek, the Canucks lack puck-moving defencemen on the back end. This past offseason, they instead focused on size, re-signing Tyler Myers to a three-year deal and adding Derek Forbort and Vincent Desharnais in free agency.
Along with Carson Soucy and seventh defenceman Noah Juulsen, that's a whole lot of size on the blue line but not much ability to transition the puck up ice.
That's shown up on the ice to start the season. Hughes and Hronek have controlled play, transitioning the puck up ice with aplomb, leading to a 67.2% expected goals percentage (xGF%) for Hughes and a 62.4% for Hronek at 5-on-5. In other words, the Canucks have significantly out-chanced the opposition with that pairing on the ice.
Every other Canucks defenceman is below 50% in xGF%, meaning the Canucks have been out-chanced with them on the ice at 5-on-5. Myers and Soucy have particularly struggled at under 40% while frequently being used in a match-up role but the sheltered Desharnais and Forbort haven't been much better.
A major cause for their struggles has been an inability to move the puck up ice. Enter Erik Brännström.
Transitioning the puck up ice is Brännstrom's bread and butter
Brännström has some significant weaknesses as a player but his biggest strength is his transition game. That ability shone in his two games in the AHL with the Abbotsford Canucks, as he repeatedly danced up the ice with his skating and puckhandling.
His ability to tilt the ice in his team's favour has made a major difference for Abbotsford. They've scored seven goals so far this season; Brännström has been on the ice for five of those seven goals and assisted on three of them himself, while tallying seven shots on goal.
That ability to transition the puck has never been in question for Brännström, who has proven he can move the puck up ice at the NHL level. In the last two seasons with the Ottawa Senators, Brännström led all Senators defencemen with a 54.1% xGF% at 5-on-5. Whether with his skates or his passing, Brännström is an effective puck-mover.
That just so happens to be the number one thing the Canucks need right now: a defenceman other than Hughes and Hronek who can move the puck.
The issue for Brännström — the reason he signed for under $1 million, was available in a trade, and went unclaimed on waivers — is on the defensive side of the game. The big caveat to his excellent underlying statistics with the Senators is that they came in a heavily-sheltered third-pairing role.
But here's the thing: the Canucks' defence is already struggling in the defensive zone.
Canucks have nothing to lose defensively
Tuesday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning saw the Canucks give up goals on major defensive mistakes by Juulsen, Soucy, and Myers. Desharnais has been a healthy scratch for two games after a terrible performance alongside Forbort in the opening game of the season.
At this point, the Canucks wouldn't have much to lose defensively by swapping in Brännström. Even if he's no better defensively, he at least brings the transition game that might help make up for any defensive errors he makes. When the likes of Juulsen and Desharnais make defensive errors, what can they do to make up for them?
For what it's worth, Brännström has only been on the ice for one of the seven goals against the Abbotsford Canucks through two games and it came on a play where he had lost his stick and was trying to defend a 3-on-2 rush without one. Even then, it wasn't his man who scored.
Much has been made of Rick Tocchet's defensive structure and how it has helped defencemen like Tyler Myers to become stronger in their own end of the ice. That was even one of the reasons given for signing Desharnais.
"We felt that there is even more upside," said general manager Patrik Allvin of Desharnais. "He hasn't been in the league for a long time. I think with the coaches I have here in Adam Foote and Sergei Gonchar, I believe they can help him get to the next level.
President of hockey operations Jim Rutherford has even gone on the record as saying that any defenceman will do given the right defensive structure.
"If we were playing in a really strong structure, it would make it easier for our defence to play and it wouldn’t matter who was on our defence," said Rutherford in a pointed criticism of then-coach Bruce Boudreau.
If that's the case, why not apply that same thinking to Brännström, who brings an added offensive dimension to his game that someone like Desharnais simply does not have. If the right structure and coaching can make it easier for Brännström to play defence, why not give him a shot?
Calling up Brännstrom helps clear up logjam on Abbotsford blue line
Finally, there's one more added benefit to calling up Brännström from Abbotsford: it clears a spot in the lineup.
The Abbotsford Canucks have 11 defencemen on the roster with Brännström and have dressed seven defencemen for each of their first two games. Veteran Christian Wolanin hasn't even gotten into a game yet and neither has Akito Hirose, Christian Felton, or AHL signing Layton Ahac.
On top of that, prospect Kirill Kudryavtsev has dressed as the seventh defenceman and has performed admirably in limited minutes but it's not an ideal developmental situation.
Calling up Brännström frees up a spot on the left side, potentially allowing Wolanin to step back into the lineup or giving an opportunity to Kudryavtsev to play more minutes. The simple truth is that the Canucks have way too many defencemen down in Abbotsford and calling one up to run with eight defencemen on the NHL roster makes a lot of sense.
The benefit of Brännström over Friedman is that it gives the Canucks more versatility in their seventh and eighth defencemen, not only with one left-shot and one right-shot defenceman but in terms of playstyle.
