Should the Canucks Claim Triston Grant (or Another Enforcer) Off Waivers?

Should the Canucks claim Triston Grant off of waivers? Or someone else like him?

I was a big fan of Triston Grant (2001-2002 to 2004-2005) in his four seasons with the Vancouver Giants of the WHL, so his name jumped off the page when I was looking at the recent waiver wire activity in the NHL.

A 26-year-old AHLer with a few NHL call ups to his credit, Triston Grant is a bruising 6'1" 223 pound winger who isn't afraid to drop the gloves.

During his four seasons with the Vancouver Giants, Grant picked up 84 fighting majors and 713 PIM over 232 games. Grant continued this trend once he turned pro after being drafted by Philadelphia in the 9th round of the 2004 draft.

In 326 AHL games over five seasons, he has 78 fighting majors and 595 PIM. Over 11 regular season NHL games with Nashville and Philadelphia, he has three fighting majors and 19 PIM.

So why do I think the Canucks should consider plucking Grant off the waiver wire?

Two reasons:

First, while he most likely would spend the whole year with the Manitoba Moose, there is a possibility that he might play well enough and be a call up for the Canucks during the year. And if the Canucks signed him, he'd be the toughest forward on the roster.

Second, and this is the more important reason in my mind, the Canucks are sending quite a few skilled rookies to the AHL for development this year.

While the AHL isn't Slapshot, in my opinion it would be a smart move by Canucks GM Mike Gillis to sign an enforcer for the farm team.

Bill Sweat (6'0" 180 lbs), Cody Hodgson (6'0" 188 lbs) and Jordan Schroeder (5'9" 175 lbs) might be a great scoring line, but they aren't going to strike fear into their opponents.

The Moose are looking at potentially having these three undersized rookies in their top six forwards, and also dressing three other skilled but not overly large rookies in Kevin Connauton (6'1" 185 lbs), Chris Tanev (6'2" 185 lbs), and Lee Sweatt (5'9" 193 lbs) on defense. Yann Sauve (6'3" 205 lbs) is another rookie defencemen, but at least he isn't undersized.

A heavyweight like Grant would help ensure that these rookies, along with sophomores Evan Oberg (6'0" 165 lbs) and Sergei Shirokov (5'10" 176 lbs), don't get pushed around too much, and have room to develop their games without interference or injuries.

Aside from bringing in an enforcer like Grant, the Canucks only other options currently for a decent fighter on the Moose would be Guillaume Desbiens (if he doesn't make the NHL roster) or Darcy Hordichuk (if he clears waivers).

Since a very likely scenario is Desbiens making the Canucks roster for opening night and Hordichuk being claimed on waivers after losing his roster spot, Gillis should address this need by claiming Triston Grant (or a similar player) off of waivers.

And if Grant should get called up and be the second coming of Jeff "The Bra-barian" Cowan, I wouldn't mind that either.