Not many pundits expected the Vancouver Canucks to still be in the hunt for a playoff spot in February. Less surprising is the team’s current march to the infirmary. As funny as it to hear Vancouver Canucks’ general manager Jim Benning remark that the injuries the team has faced in the last couple of weeks are “unlike anything he’s ever seen in his life”, let’s be real: injuries are part of life for the Vancouver Canucks and have been for years.

Though the club had a practically clean bill of health at the beginning of the month, the injuries have mounted unceremoniously.

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The defence, in particular, has been savaged. And it’s not as if the group had a lot of depth to start with. The team’s two best rearguards—at least by name—Alex Edler and Chris Tanev, look like they will be out for a decent amount of time to come.

Meanwhile, Troy Stecher—last year a healthy scratch—was forced to play over 30 minutes last night against the Los Angeles Kings. Stecher and Ben Hutton have basically been holding the corps together while Erik Gudbranson has struggled mightily. Rookie Guillaume Brisebois played his first NHL game last night, and while he was fine, he’s not the answer to the Canucks’ problems.

So it is that the Canucks are bringing up veteran Luke Schenn, who they picked up from the Anaheim Ducks with a seventh-round pick for Michael Del Zotto.

Schenn can’t be much worse as a defensively-minded right-hander than Gudbranson has been, and should be able to log some time for a team that badly needs it. Will he get into some games? That remains to be seen. Alex Biega is the team’s defacto extra defenceman so displacing him on the right side would seem to be a curious move. However it’s possible the team wants to play two righties on the same pairing (which they did with Tanev and Gudbranson when the former was healthy) in place of Brisebois.

Schenn has actually been pretty good since joining the Utica Comets in the AHL, registering five points in seven matches. The Canucks might be inclined to throw the physical blueliner in against physical teams like the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks; they’ll play both clubs in the next four games.

Schenn is a former first-round pick who has played more than 700 games in the NHL but has mostly seen AHL action this season.

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