Jonathan Lekkerimaki was briefly listed as a first-line centre on Saturday.

It was another sign of troubled times after the Vancouver Canucks were once again bitten by the injury bug. When centre Elias Pettersson left the warm-up skate and didn’t return to face the Minnesota Wild at Rogers Arena , the first thought was he might have the flu.

However, Pettersson reportedly has an upper-body ailment, which was why Lekkerimaki went from expected scratch, being listed as a pivot, and then taking his customary position at right wing. It meant centres Aatu Raty, David Kampf and Max Sasson piled up the minutes and played with a variety of wingers in hopes of trying to stymie the hard-charging Wild.

And in a season where the Canucks have hit nine on the injury metre in a condensed season,

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