Gagner put on waivers to make way for youngsters
Forwards Gagner and Archibald waived to make room for Goldobin and Leipsic
When you started to pencil the opening night 2018-19 Canucks lineup way back in July, a few things stood out.
First, there weren’t a lot of spots left for young players.
Second, there wasn’t an obvious spot for Sam Gagner, even though the team was desperate for offence and he has a scoring pedigree.
Gagner, who has two years remaining on a three-year, $9.45-million contract he signed with the Canucks in the summer of 2017, was put on waivers Monday.
Gagner was one of six veteran free agents signed that summer — Patrick Wiercioch, Alex Burmistrov, Anders Nilsson, Michael Del Zotto and Thomas Vanek were the others — with only Nilsson and Del Zotto remaining.
It was not an easy decision to waive Gagner, Canucks general manager Jim Benning said. The former first rounder was upset about the decision, the GM acknowledged.
“Any time you’re dealing with people’s lives, their families (it’s difficult),” he said Monday, hours after announcing the move.
Depth winger Darren Archibald was also placed on waivers, bringing the Canucks’ roster down to the maximum 23 players with Antoine Roussel starting the year on injured reserve because of a concussion.
Benning said the move was about shaping the future of the team, one that he hopes is focused on youth.
The top two lines look to include one of Nikolay Goldobin or Brendan Leipsic, or maybe even both.
“I said all summer that if our young players came in and they showed that they’re ready to play, we’d give them an opportunity. I thought Goldobin, Leipsic and (Tyler) Motte had good camps. So we want to see them some more.”
On a team that even head coach Travis Green has said is going to struggle to score goals, finding spots for creative players like Goldobin and Leipsic makes sense. Giving them opportunities, in the end, came at the expense of Gagner, who had 50 points in his last season for Columbus.
“When we signed (Gagner) we looked for him to add to our scoring,” Benning said.
“We were hoping he would produce points.”
Gagner spent most of last season on the same line as Vanek, but while Vanek delivered in his third-line minutes before being traded for Motte, Gagner struggled to make much of a consistent impact. He scored 10 goals and added 21 assists.
Even if he’s assigned to the AHL, Gagner will still cost the Canucks a salary cap hit of $2.1 million.
Teams get a maximum of just $1.05 million in cap relief when assigning one-way contracts to the minors.
Benning said the team tried to find a trading partner before Gagner was put on waivers, but didn’t find any interest. Benning wouldn’t confirm that Gagner would be assigned to the Utica Comets of the AHL if he goes unclaimed.
Gagner would count as a “veteran” under AHL eligibility rules and teams are allowed to dress only five. The Comets currently have four, so if both Gagner and Archibald were to be assigned there, one veteran would have to sit every night.
Other NHL teams have 24 hours to place a claim on either player.
Benning said he hoped to be in the same dilemma again, having to make a difficult choice about cutting a seasoned veteran because a promising youngster has forced his hand.
“With these young kids coming, this could happen more and more,” he insisted. “We’re going to have to make tough decisions.”
I said all summer that if our young players came in and they showed that they’re ready to play, we’d give them an opportunity.