With the start to the NHL season just over a week away, Vancouver Canucks president of hockey operations Trevor Linden and general manager Jim Benning believe top prospect Bo Horvat has done everything he can to make the NHL team.

"Horvat's had an excellent camp," Benning explained on The Bro Jake Show on TSN Radio 1040 Vancouver on Wednesday morning. "Our young players have all showed up and they've played excellent in training camp and the pre-season games. We still have a couple more exhibition games and then we'll meet as a management group, sit down and talk about (if they stay with the team). 

"Bo's done everything that he could do to make it a tough decision for us and we're happy about that."

The Canucks entered camp with the possibility of keeping three goaltenders on their roster, but decided to place Jacob Markstrom on waivers. He cleared through this week and was assigned to the Utica Comets in the American Hockey League. And Benning is happy that Markstrom is staying with the organization.

"Jacob worked really hard this summer and got in really good shape," he said. "He came into camp and played well. The Stockton game (against San Jose), I thought he played well. He's a young goalie and it takes goalies longer to develop."

Linden agreed with Benning, adding that having depth in goal is important.

"You see what happened in Minnesota last year, where they went through five goalies," he said. "It's an important position and (Markstrom) is a talented guy. We can't get over how big he is. He's 6'6" and long - and to have another year to work with him, we wanted to buy ourselves some time and were able to do that."

The Canucks' pre-season continues Thursday night as they face the Oilers in Edmonton. Pre-game is on TSN Radio 1040 is at 4pm pt with puck drop at 6pm pt.