Article content

You might have noticed that there’s still one big Russian in camp.

Andrey Pedan may be quietly winning the battle for the final spot on the Canucks defence.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Let's quickly talk about Andrey Pedan Back to video

We assume that seven guys currently will make the team to start the season: Edler, Tanev, Hutton, Stecher, del Zotto, Gudbranson, Wiercioch.

Conventional wisdom suggests there will be an eighth defenceman, though of course that’s not locked in stone. (Botch lays out a case for 7 D/14 F here which basically suggests just sending all the bubble defencemen back to Utica.)

Thursday night, Andrey Pedan put on another quietly good performance. He’s up against Alex Biega, who had a classic up-and-down Bulldog night, and Philip Holm, who’s mostly played B-team games and has struggled at times, for the 8th defenceman spot.

Both Biega and Pedan need to clear waivers before being assigned to the AHL, while Holm does not.

How good was Pedan against the Flames? Paired with Chris Tanev, Pedan was tasked with getting the puck out of the Canucks’s end with control — either by passing or by simply skating it out — and did a very good job, finding success nearly 50 per cent of the time. That’s a very good number, and his best of the pre-season.