• LD Brandon Gormley. Gormley
  was a first-round pick in 2010, billed as a smart two-way defenceman with good
  mobility, decent size and skill with the puck. I liked him as
  a stopgap gamble last season, but then he went to the minors and put up six
  points and a minus-19 rating over 39 AHL games. That ugly half-season in the
  American League is out of sync with the rest of his career, but he needs to
  prove something down there before he gets another shot in the big leagues.
• RW Alex Grenier. Grenier
  is 6’5”, put up 48 points in 69 AHL games last year, and just turned 25.
  Canucks Army has a
  piece up on the decision to waive him, and I’d also recommend this summer’s
  prospect
  profile of the player.
• G Mike McKenna. McKenna
  is an exceptional AHL starter. He’s 33, but last season posted a 0.921 save percentage
  for Florida’s farm team and has been a solid minor-league goalie for the last
  half-decade. Unlike a lot of pigeon-holed No. 3 goalies, he’s actually been
  given NHL minutes at points, though he hasn’t done much with them.  
• RD Brent Regner. Regner
  found his wat into the majors with the Florida Panthers last season, appearing
  in seven contests. His underlying
  numbers in that span were nothing to write home about, although he’s still
  a reasonable recall option on the right side at some point later this season.
• RW Cole Schneider. The
  26-year-old left-shooting right wing isn’t a player I’m overly familiar with,
  but he combines a solid defensive reputation with average size and pretty
  decent scoring numbers (56 points in 73 games) in the AHL. He found his way
  into two NHL contests in Buffalo last season.
• G Jeremy Smith. Smith
  is a pretty interesting guy. He’s a Nashville-developed goalie who struggled
  early in his career (0.899 SV% in the ECHL as a rookie pro) but has since
  emerged as one of the best AHL’ers around. He’s only 27. Goaltending is a weird
  position in that plenty of top AHL ‘tenders just never get a shot in the
  majors; I’m hoping at some point Smith gets a run of games so we can see if his
  strong minor-league performance translates to the show.
• LD Ryan Stanton. Stanton,
  a smart stay-at-home defenceman with mobility issues played two seasons with
  the Canucks, but found his way to the minors last season and stayed their
  pretty much all year. There’s a ton of stuff on this player at Canucks Army –
  basically he
  was full value early in his tenure in Vancouver and then
  fell apart in his second season with the club.
• RW Zack Stortini. Stortini
  played 250-odd NHL games over the course of his career and compiled 725 penalty
  minutes, but he’s settled neatly into the role of AHL depth forward. He’s
  played just one major-league game in the last five seasons, though he has
  pretty decent offensive ability for an enforcer.
• LW Joe Whitney. Whitney
  is a point-per-game AHL forward. He’s also 5’6” and 28 years old. I have a soft
  spot for this player-type, because you just never know, but it’s hard to
  imagine him getting claimed.

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