Vancouver Canucks D Troy Stecher to Make Debut vs. Senators

The Vancouver Canucks will face the Ottawa Senators tonight at Rogers Arena and there is one player that will have fans particularly excited.

Undrafted NCAA signings are usually half a season or so away from making the NHL. Vancouver Canucks defenseman Troy Stecher was never expected to be any different. That was before training camp, however, where Stecher easily outplayed some others but was sent to the AHL Utica Comets for contract and waiver reasons.

Now he is back, and Canucks fans should be excited.

I’m actually not sure whether it’s a good or a bad sign that fans get excited about Chris Tanev being injured. Nobody is actually happy about it, but nobody seems to care either. The Canucks have a chance to get back on the winning track tonight against the Ottawa Senators, and losing the top D-man for a game like that is usually terrible news.

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For the Canucks, it is, too. But, Stecher played so well in preseason, especially on a pairing with Alex Edler, that we all just waited for this moment to happen.

It is safe to say that Stecher outplayed Philip Larsen in preseason, but it wasn’t enough. The Canucks promised Larsen a spot on the first power-play unit when they signed him, so they couldn’t just make him a healthy scratch to start the season. Plus, it was probably good for Stecher to experience the pro game at the AHL level first.

In four games with the Comets, Stecher has no goals and one assists. Despite those modest numbers, Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins might put Stecher on the power play tonight .

Here’s the full lineup:

Daniel Sedin — Henrik Sedin — Loui Eriksson
Markus Granlund — Brandon Sutter — Jannik Hansen
Sven Baertschi — Bo Horvat — Jack Skille
Jayson Megna — Brendan Gaunce — Jake Virtanen

Alex Edler — Troy Stecher
Ben Hutton — Alex Gudbranson
Luca Sbisa — Philip Larsen

Other lineup notes

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