Vancouver Canucks reassign Linus Karlsson, call up Akito Hirose from Abbotsford

The team has a day off today, but found themselves in a bit of a pickle following Wednesday night’s thrilling overtime victory over Bo Horvat and the New York Islanders. Pius Suter missed that game and is listed as “day-to-day” per head coach Rick Tocchet. Additionally, the Canucks lost Andrei Kuzmenko in that game after the sophomore Russian took a JT Miller slap shot to the face and left the game bloodied. By all accounts, Kuzmenko is fine and simply didn’t make the trip because the team flew out to Calgary right after the game when he was still undergoing tests.

Without two forwards, the Canucks needed to call someone up, and that person was Linus Karlsson. Celebrating his 24th birthday, the Swede made his NHL debut in Calgary and tallied a respectable four shots on goal. He even hit a post in the dying seconds of Thursday ngiht’s 5-2 loss, which earned him a good guy stick tap from former Canucks goaltender and Karlsson’s countryman, Jacob Markstrom.

All-in-all, it was a successful NHL debut for Karlsson, who returns to Abbotsford, where he’s tallied two goals and nine assists through 13 games so far this season. Last year, his first in North America, Karlsson registered 24 goals and 25 assists through 72 games with the AHL Canucks.

On the blue line, it will be interesting to see if Akito Hirose gets into the lineup. One would assume the Canucks’ original plan would have been to get Hirose in for one of the four right-handed defencemen they dressed in Wednesday night’s game against the Islanders, but obviously the injury troubles up front would have prevented that.

The Canucks welcome the Seattle Kraken to Rogers Arena tomorrow as they look to get back into the win column after falling in Calgary on Thursday night.