Vancouver Canucks make surprising roster move, placing veteran defenseman on waivers
The Vancouver Canucks have placed defenseman Erik Brannstrom on waivers today for the purpose of demoting him to the American Hockey League.
Erik Brannstrom signed in Vancouver this summer as a free agent after spending the past several years with the Ottawa Senators.
Moving to the West Coast was certainly an upgrade for him and he was enjoying playing on a better team, which reflected in his stats.
Apparently, his performances have not been good enough though as the team announced today that he has been placed on waivers.
Canucks head coach Rich Tocchet explained yesterday why Brannstrom has been a healthy scratch in recent games, which also is a good indication as to why the team elected to waive him.
"We've been playing a lot of low-event games, struggling to score goals. We got to stay in the game that way. He's a good puck-moving defenseman, but you also have to be able to defend. We got (Noah Juulsen) now and the reward risk (With Brannstrom) is too much."
It seems that Tocchet is not happy with the way Brannstrom has been playing in his own zone.
That is a fair assessment. Despite being on pace for career highs in goals and points, he has a -4 rating through 28 games with the Canucks, who are a good team.
Whether or not Noah Juulsen is an upgrade defensively remains to be seen though.
Juulsen has a rating of -10 through 31 games this year and has 0 points to show for his efforts.
Certainly, Canucks fans will be scratching their heads at this move.
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