The Vancouver Canucks have swapped a couple of their goaltenders ahead of practice on Monday, calling up Nikita Tolopilo under emergency conditions and re-assigning Jiří Patera to the Abbotsford Canucks. This comes only a couple of days after Tolopilo made his return to Abbotsford's lineup after missing around a month due to injury.
This move comes ahead of Vancouver's upcoming road trip to California, during which they will play the Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, and Los Angeles Kings within the span of four days. After, they will make a trip to Colorado to play the Colorado Avalanche before returning to Rogers Arena. Seeing as their games against San Jose and Los Angeles will occur back-to-back, Vancouver would be wise not to force Kevin Lankinen into too many games.
As mentioned, Tolopilo has missed a good chunk of the season due to injury after being removed from Abbotsford's home-opener on October 24. He made his first start in a little less than a month after on Friday night, stopping 28 of 32 shots faced in Abbotsford's 5-3 loss to the San Jose Barracuda.
Patera recently made his Canucks debut last Monday, manning the net in his first NHL game since March 26, 2024. In this 8-5 loss to the Florida Panthers, he faced 40 shots and stopped 33 of them. Patera will now return to Abbotsford to play alongside Ty Young.
The Canucks' next opponent is the Ducks, who they'll play on Wednesday night in Anaheim. The Ducks currently sit at the top of the Pacific Division and do not look to be slowing down. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 pm PT.
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