The Vancouver Canucks have placed defenceman Erik Brännström on NHL waivers. General manager Patrik Allvin made the announcement late Sunday morning.
Teams will have 24 hours to put in a claim on Brännström, who the Canucks acquired as a throw-in on the trade with the Colorado Avalanche that saw the Canucks shed Tucker Poolman’s contract. After they originally acquired Brännström, the Canucks put him on waivers at that time, too. He cleared, putting up three assists in two games with the Abbotsford Canucks before ultimately being recalled to the NHL.
Brännström excelled in sheltered minutes, but struggled when injuries to the Canucks’ blueline forced him to play against tougher competition. Through 28 games with Vancouver this season, Brännström has recorded three goals and five assists.
Lately, Brännström had clearly fallen out of the Canucks’ coaching staff’s favour, as he last played a game on New Year’s Eve against the Calgary Flames. What made it clear Brännström’s time in the NHL with the Canucks was numbered was the fact that with both Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek out with injuries, the coaching staff still elected to use players like Guillaume Brisebois and Noah Juulsen ahead of Brännström.
Head coach Rick Tocchet offered up an explanation following last night’s win over the Toronto Maple Leafs as to why the Canucks weren’t using the 25-year-old left shot defenceman.
“I just think we’ve been playing a lot of low-event games,” Tocchet said. “We’re struggling to score goals. We feel we’ve got to stay in the game that way. You know, puck-moving defencemen, you’ve also got to defend. There’s a lot of different things. I think [Guillaume Brisebois] is a good defender, you know, we’ve got Hughes now. I just think the reward-risk part of it is something that we’d rather go this way, but that doesn’t mean he [Brännström] won’t get in.”
Now, the Canucks will hope Brännström passes through waivers once again and can report to the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks. Even if he can’t crack the NHL lineup right now, he’s still certainly valuable organizational depth, and could still help them out down the line.
We will find out tomorrow if Brännström passes through waivers. Given that Ty Smith — a player who profiles similarly to Brännström — just passed through waivers today, there’s reason to hope that this doesn’t mean Brännström’s time in the Canucks’ organization is coming to an end.
