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“Stech has probably thrown a wrench in it. We didn’t expect him to be to quite to that spot yet,” he said. “He’s played well. We need to get another look at him.”

Vancouver landed the rights to Larsen, 26, from the Edmonton Oilers for a conditional 2017 fifth-round draft pick last February, while Larsen was playing in the KHL. The Canucks then signed him to a one-year, one-way contract in July.

This will be his third preseason game tonight, and Desjardins contended that Larsen was “much better in his second game,” than in his debut.

“What we need to see is our power play units together and what we want to run and how those fits are,” he said, pointing to Stecher and Larsen, both right-shot puck-moving types.

“When you win the special teams battle, your chance of winning goes up a lot. We have to make sure those two areas (power play, penalty kill) of our team are good and we’re ready.”

He said that he thought Larsen has “lots of good qualities,” as a power-play quarterback, but added, “the same as Stecher. Stecher has done well….that’s a good competition to have.”

2. Etem gets another chance to strut stuff

Etem was on a checking line to start Sunday’s game, alongside Derek Dorsett and Brendan Gaunce.

It’s fair to suggest that tonight’s placing in the lineup is a crack to see if he can use his speed to create offensively.

With Rodin producing offensively and guys like Joseph LaBate and Jack Skille looking like they could occupy checking role spots, forward jobs with the Canucks are suddenly looking harder to come by.