Wake With Elias: Is Travis Hamonic’s time in Vancouver officially over?

Just like that, $6 million went “poof.”

On Monday, it was reported that Travis Hamonic has been granted a temporary leave of absence by the Canucks.

Then, everyone’s favourite salary-snooping website, CapFriendly, reported that Hamonic’s cap hit would be completely removed from the Canucks books while the player stays on his leave of absence.

It’s never been 100% confirmed publicly, but it’s widely assumed the Hamonic’s absense is related due to his status as an unvaccinated individual. The Canucks assigned him to Abbotsford ahead of the regular season to get some cap relief. Now, it seems like they’ve temporarily found a way to get out of paying his entire salary.

Even if Hamonic does decide to get vaccinated and return, is there really a place for him and his salary on his team.

The easy answer is “yes,” but he didn’t exactly light the world on fire last season. With Hughes, the Canucks’ top duo was slightly below average. Without Hughes, Hamonic was a wreck at five-on-five.

The extremely early returns on the Quinn Hughes, Tucker Poolman pairing have been positive. Poolman has shown a good ability to close his gaps, and his mobility is far superior to Hamonic’s.

Kyle Burroughs has shown to be a solid third-pairing defenceman so far alongside Jack Rathbone. The bigger challenge for Burroughs will be once the team increases his penalty-killing role, but his smart, aggressive style has been a treat to watch so far. He currently leads the team in hits as well despite playing the fourth-fewest minutes on the team.

In other Canucks News

• The Abbotsford Canucks hit the ice for their third game tonight against LA’s affiliate, the Ontario Reign. It’s a rematch between the two teams after the baby Canucks won their first-ever game against Ontario on Sunday.
• Here were the Canucks lines from Monday’s practice.

Good to see Boeser return in place of Chiasson, along with Hoglander up on the top line. That’s a spot that the young Swede absolutely deserves to be in. He’s been one of the most noticeable Canucks through three games.

Miller and Podkolzin did play together during the preseason, and it will be interesting to see how long those two stay together during the game tonight.

Could we see the debut of Luke Schenn tonight? Even after all of those kind words I just wrote about Burroughs?

• Is Conor Garland an instant fan favourite? [Daily Hive]
• Ekman-Larsson is off to a solid start in Vancouver [The Athletic]
• What a world...

Around the NHL

• The Kraken received their first whooping as an NHL team last night. Congratulations!

• The Flames are also winless to start the season after losing to the...Ducks?

Congratulations!!!

• Finally, to cap off a great night of hockey, the Leafs lost in overtime to the Rangers despite outshooting them 41-23.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!