The Vancouver Canucks have recalled defenceman Akito Hirose from the American Hockey League’s Abbotsford Canucks, the club announced Tuesday morning.
Hirose, 24, has appeared in 11 AHL games with Abbotsford this season, although he has yet to record a point with the team. He also skated in two NHL games with Vancouver earlier this year, although he was unable to get onto the scoresheet while averaging 12:37 of ice time.
The Canucks originally signed Hirose as an undrafted free agent out of the NCAA’s Minnesota State University – Mankato program upon the end of his junior year with the Mavericks.
The Calgary product appeared in his first seven games with the Canucks to finish the 2022–23 regular season, collecting three assists and logging an average of 17:28 of ice time per night.
In almost certainly related news, the Canucks are expected to be without Carson Soucy for the next little while after he left Sunday’s 5–2 win over the Montreal Canadiens with a lower-body injury.
With Soucy out and Tyler Myers seemingly getting the day off, the Canucks practiced on Tuesday with pairings of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek, Ian Cole and Noah Juulsen, and Mark Friedman and Hirose.
Hirose — whose older brother, Taro, is in the Detroit Red Wings’ system — is in the first season of the two-year deal he signed with the Canucks as a restricted free agent over the summer after his initial one-year, entry-level deal with the team ran its course.
It remains to be seen whether Hirose will be in the lineup when the Canucks return to action on Wednesday to take on the New York Islanders at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
The Canucks have been one of the National Hockey League’s most exciting and surprising teams to start the 2023–24 season, currently occupying second place in the Pacific Division with an 11–3–1 record and 23 points in 15 games.
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