Vancouver Canucks Should Claim Teemu Pulkkinen
As the Vancouver Canucks try to get down to their 23-man roster, some interesting names are popping up on the waiver wire and Teemu Pulkkinen is worth considering.
The Vancouver Canucks clearly are not the only team with some tough decisions to make ahead of the opening of the 2016-17 season. If you took a look at the waiver wire this morning, you would see names like Zbynek Michalek, Rob Scuderi, Gregory Campbell and Andrej Pavelec, who have all been NHL regulars for a long time. However, the name that is interesting is Teemu Pulkkinen.
The Detroit Red Wings have a ton of forward depth, even after losing Pavel Datsyuk earlier in the summer, which is why Pulkkinen is on waivers today and why they had to let Martin Frk go to Carolina. Neither player is a bad player, there are just too many bodies and they had to let them go. Just like Frk was, I expect Pulkkinen will be in high demand on the waiver wire and the Canucks should be one of the teams to take a look.
Pulkkinen is just 24 years old and led the American Hockey League in scoring in 2014-15 with 34 goals and 27 assists with the Grand Rapids Griffins, while also playing 31 games at the NHL level.
In 2015-16, he spent the entire season with the big club and managed to get into 36 games and had 12 points on an already deep Red Wings roster. Pulkkinen underwent shoulder surgery in June and was expected to be out for four to six months, but ended up being ready for training camp and participated in the Red Wings preseason schedule.
According to media in Detroit, Pulkkinen did not have a great camp but skated on a line with Dylan Larkin and Justin Abdelkader in the final preseason game.
Now you’re probably thinking “we already have too many bottom-six forwards, why do we need Pulkkinen?” Let me explain to you why Pulkkinen would be a better fit than some of our current options.
The Vancouver Canucks’ true depth is on the right wing with guys like Emerson Etem, Derek Dorsett and Jake Virtanen all looking to make the big club. On the left side, you have Daniel Sedin, Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund/Brendan Gaunce, which doesn’t exactly scream depth to me. It just so happens that Pulkkinen is a left winger with a right-hand shot.
It’s been no secret the Canucks have been looking to add a left winger this summer, in case the Sven Baertschi experiment fails. Pulkkinen is only making $800,000 at the NHL level and the Canucks wouldn’t have to give anything up to get him here.
With Anton Rodin likely starting the year on injured reserve, bringing in Pulkkinen isn’t a difficult move to make either. Etem’s days are likely numbered in Vancouver regardless and Jake Virtanen looked like he could still use some time in Utica to rehab his shoulder.
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