Novotny and Rogowski Head Back to Junior. Camp Is Getting Real.

The Canucks returned Adam Novotny and Brooks Rogowski to their OHL clubs on Tuesday, a routine cut that nonetheless marks the moment training camp stops being an open audition and starts being a roster. Both players had been in camp on a look-see basis. Neither made the jump.

It is worth noting what this move is and what it isn't. Sending teenagers back to junior is not a setback — it's the normal cadence of a rebuild. What it does confirm is that the depth chart Ryan Johnson inherited isn't going to be solved by a couple of camp invites. The secondary scoring problem that defined last season remains a work in progress, and the names who will be asked to address it are largely the same names who couldn't last year.

The opener in Edmonton is six days out. The roster is taking its shape, and the shape of it is familiar: Hughes and Hronek anchoring the blue line, Lankinen carrying the goaltending load in Demko's absence, and a forward group that added Gallagher but hasn't added much else in terms of proven depth. Novotny and Rogowski will develop where they should. The question the Canucks still haven't fully answered is who develops the middle six.