Former First Round Pick Shockingly Hits Waivers, per Elliotte Friedman
In a bit of a surprise on Sunday afternoon, the Vancouver Canucks decided to place a former Top 15 pick on waivers as reported by Elliotte Friedman.
With the team coming off a tiring but victorious 3-0 game over the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Vancouver Canucks decided to make a surprising roster move involving one of their young defensemen.
Besides Quinn Hughes, Vancouver hasn't had a lot of offense coming from their blueline, and normally offensive studs like Filip Hronek have not pulled their weight this season.
So it was a bit shocking to see that Elliotte Friedman announced on X Sunday afternoon that defenseman Erik Brannstrom was placed on waivers by the team; the news was relayed by Vancouver sportswriter Rick Dhaliwal on X as well.
It's a turn of events that is a bit surprising given that Vancouver had such a strong game, but clearly Brannstrom wasn't giving Rick Tocchet the type of defense needed, leading to his assignment.
Erik Brannstrom The Odd Man Out For A Struggling Canucks Defense
This season, Brannstrom has three goals and five assists in 28 games, he signed with Colorado this summer but was almost immediately traded to Vancouver.
A former 15th overall pick of the Vegas Golden Knights, he was traded as part of the package that sent Mark Stone to Vegas and himself and Oscar Lindberg to Ottawa.
The waiver assignment didn't happen to sit well with Vancouver fans either, as they believe the team gave up way too early on the defenseman even during his struggles.
A lot of the resentment comes toward Noah Juulsen, who has had a rough season compared to Brannstrom. He has zero points in 31 games, is a minus-10 and hasn't provided nearly as much value.
He's also older than Brannstrom so it's a bit perplexing that Patrik Allvin and company would prefer a weaker Juulsen even if he's a bit bigger. Vancouver needs both offense and defense on their blueline and Juulsen offers neither.
It remains to be seen if a team is going to take a chance on Brannstrom but for now, it seems the Canucks have seen enough and would like to take a risk of losing him than having him play for them at this point.
