Vancouver Canucks forward Nils Aman will remain property of the Canucks.
Placed on NHL waivers on Saturday morning, the 24-year-old went unclaimed and is now free to report to AHL Abbotsford.
With injuries around the league naturally starting to add up, many wondered if a team like the Colorado Avalanche or Calgary Flames might put in a claim on Aman, who has established a fine baseline game and has proven to be defensively responsible at the NHL level.
Instead, Aman will now report to Abbotsford. An interesting wrinkle in all of this is that Pius Suter looked right at home when given a turn with Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland late in Saturday night’s game against the San Jose Sharks. Suter scored his second goal of the game, and ultimately, the game-winning goal in the final minute of that game. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Canucks look to give that trio a longer run for at least the rest of this road trip.
The only problem is, with Aman sent down, they only have four players capable of playing centre, rather than five: JT Miller, Elias Pettersson, Teddy Blueger, and Pius Suter.
For Suter to play in the top six on the wing, the Canucks will likely need to recall a centre. Aatu Räty put up three points for Abbotsford last night and has been buzzing early on this season. Could he be the call-up to allow the Canucks to play Suter at wing? Räty impressed enough at camp to open the season as the Canucks’ NHL third-line centre, but after three games, the club decided he was better off playing in Abbotsford to continue his development.
Do they feel Räty is ready for a call-up? Maybe, but they could also recall Aman if they really wanted to. Aman wouldn’t again require waivers to be sent down unless he has played ten games or been with the NHL team for 30 days. That doesn’t appear to be the case though, as the club announced separately that Aman had been sent to AHL Abbotsford.
