Canucks: Jack Rathbone will get his chance to shine in home opener
Rathbone #Rathbone
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Coach’s messaging to prized defensive prospect is to “use your best attributes, which is your skating and puck handling and shooting. Understand the defence portion of the game, but, in the end, just be you. What got him here is what’s gong to keep him here. Be the best you can be at what you do.”
Defenceman Jack Rathbone will make his season debut for the Vancouver Canucks tonight in their home opener. Photo by Gregory Shamus /PNG Article content
Jack Rathbone wasn’t trying one bit to play down how he excited he was to get into the Vancouver Canucks’ lineup.
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“The smile hasn’t come off my face,” the 23-year-old defenceman said after the morning skate Saturday, having just learned that he would make his season debut in Vancouver’s home opener against the Buffalo Sabres at Rogers Arena. “I’m ready to go.”
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Rathbone is Vancouver’s best defence prospect. He might be their top prospect overall. Five straight healthy scratches for him to begin the season, as the team started 0-3-2, had started to get attention from both the media and the fan base.
Vancouver does have a banged up rearguard crew. Quinn Hughes didn’t take the morning skate Saturday, listed as a game-time decision tonight. Coach Bruce Boudreau said Tucker Poolman was in the same boat while Riley Stillman is day-to-day.
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Boudreau wouldn’t get into specifics about what is ailing each player.
The Canucks were worried enough about available blue liners Saturday that they recalled Noah Juulsen from the AHL Abbotsford Canucks, sending winger Nils Hoglander down.
Hoglander, 21, played 60 games with the Canucks last season and scored 10 goals. He had 13 goals in 56 games with Vancouver two seasons ago.
Boudreau said that it’s merely a “paper transaction,” to make things work under the salary cap and roster restrictions. He expects Hoglander back with the big team at the first availability.
Vancouver needed to move out a player who isn’t waiver eligible and Boudreau said that it was either going to be Hoglander or winger Vasily Podkolzin, 21, who were going to come off the roster for an extra defenceman. Hoglander had been a healthy scratch for the 4-3 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
“You don’t like to do it. It’s the way the cap and everything else is,” Boudreau said.
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“Anytime you get to throw on an NHL jersey, it’s an opportunity. Hopefully, I take advantage of it. I was waiting to hear my name called and excited to have it be the home opener.”
🗣️ Jack Rathbone on making his season debut@theprovince | #Canucks pic.twitter.com/vpopwEuK4A
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 22, 2022
As for Rathbone, he’s a 2017 fourth-round pick out of Harvard University and has 17 NHL games under his belt, including nine last season. He got into eight NHL games in 2020-21, highlighted by scoring his first career NHL goal versus the Edmonton Oilers on May 6, 2021.
He sparkled at the AHL level a campaign ago, putting up 10 goals and 40 points in 39 games with Abbotsford.
Boudreau said that his messaging to Rathbone was to keep focusing on the game plan and skills that got him to that level. In Rathbone’s case, that’s being a savvy puck mover and power play quarterback.
“Use your best attributes, which is your skating and puck handling and shooting,” Boudreau said. “Understand the defence portion of the game, but, in the end, just be you. What got him here is what’s gong to keep him here. Be the best you can be at what you do.”
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Rathbone is from Boston. Vancouver winger Conor Garland, 26 is from Scituate, Mass., and he and Rathbone have trained together in the summers.
Garland even says that Rathbone is “like my little brother.”
“I’m excited for him tonight,” Garland said after the morning skate. “He’ll get it going back there.
“He’s worked hard all summer. He looked good. He’s a guy who competes and plays hard. I’m excited about hopefully being on the power play together. I’m just going to tell him to shoot. I’ve seen what his shot can do and I’ll try to get in the goalie’s eyes and get some rebounds for him. He’s a terrific player who’s going to help us a lot.”
The book on Rathbone currently is that he can have troubles in his own zone. That’s a common occurrence for a player with his offensive abilities and a 5-foot-10, 177-pound frame. He’s worked hard on shoring up his efforts without the puck.
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“I hear it a lot when I get a mic in front of my face. I love taking about my defensive game,” he said, laughing all the while. “I do know those questions are coming. I’ve taken a lot of steps to hopefully have those questions be answered.”
Rathbone got into four of Vancouver’s seven pre-season games this fall and was pleased with his efforts.
“Any time you get to throw on an NHL jersey it’s an opportunity,” he said. “Hopefully I took advantage of it.
“I’ve been waiting to hear my name called (in the regular season). I’m excited to have it be the home opener.”
It sounded like he had already let family and friends in Boston know of his situation by the time he met with the media Saturday.
“They’ll be ready to go. They’ve been waiting for this for awhile, too. They’ll be tuned in,” he said.
sewen@postmedia.com
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