"Among third-line forwards Raffi Torres and Mikael Samuelsson, only one made it to practice Wednesday in Manhattan. There's a chance only one will be on the Vancouver Canucks when Sami Salo returns from injury.

The Canucks' stunning 18-1-3 surge to the top of the National Hockey League during the last eight weeks has changed a lot of things, including the idea that Vancouver couldn't risk losing both Kevin Bieksa and Christian Ehrhoff to unrestricted free agency this summer.

Now, with a Canuck Stanley Cup more plausible than any time since June of 1994 — the Canucks are back in New York to face the Rangers later today — the team can't afford to lose either defenceman before the playoffs.

So if Salo returns from his Achilles injury, be it this month or next, there's a strong possibility Samuelsson could be the player jettisoned to make room under the salary cap for the Finnish defenceman. Or it could be Torres, who missed practice Wednesday because of illness, as part of a combination of expendable depth players.

Another possibility would be for the Canucks to offload third-pairing defenceman Keith Ballard, who hasn't been what was promised when Vancouver acquired him at the draft in June. But with four years and nearly $17-million left on his contract, Ballard seems to be untradeable. Of course, so was Ranger defenceman Wade Redden, who is in the minors.

Whatever happens, neither Ehrhoff nor Bieksa is going anywhere.

"If Sami returns," Canuck general manager Mike Gillis said Wednesday, emphasizing the "if" while confirming he has no plans to part with a top-four defenceman. "We have a lot of options, but they're all based on Sami getting healthy. There's an assumption out there that Sami's going to be back soon and be 100 per cent, but we have to wait and see."

Even before this run, the Canucks knew they were in their "window" for winning a Stanley Cup."