The Vancouver Canucks have placed defenseman Erik Brännström on waivers, per Rick Dhaliwal of Dhaliwal Sports. Brännström hasn’t appeared in Vancouver’s lineup since December 31st. Vancouver successfully waived Brännström before the start of the regular season, and proceeded to move him between the NHL and AHL four different times in the month of waiver-exemption that he received. He became waiver-eligible once more in early November, and has served as Vancouver’s seventh defenseman ever since.
Brännström has been under scrutiny for the past few seasons. The Vegas Golden Knights drafted him 15th-overall in 2017, taking him just a few picks before players like Joshua Norris, Robert Thomas, and Jake Oettinger, and quickly flipped him to Ottawa in a deal for Mark Stone. Brännström played one more year in Sweden’s SHL after his draft selection – posting 15 points in 44 games, impressive for a 19-year-old defender – and moved to the AHL in 2018-19. Brannstrom continued to score well in North America, posting a collective 53 points in 77 games between his first two years in the AHL. But he’s struggled to carry that productivity to the top flight. It took Brännström 40 career games before he managed his first NHL goal, and five full seasons before he reached 20 points. He finally hit that mark in 76 games with Ottawa last season – the most he’s played in one NHL season. That boost in scoring suggested that Brännström was a bright gem in a muddy role, sparking the Colorado Avalanche to sign him to a one-year, $900K contract this summer – and then trade him to the Vancouver Canucks for a fourth-round pick in October. Brännström worked his way up from Vancouver’s bottom pair to start the season, and even managed a few games on the top pair in November and December. But he’s again struggled to score, with just eight points in 28 games this season.
Having already cleared waivers once this season, Brännström doesn’t seem a likely candidate to land somewhere new with this move. Instead, he’ll likely pass through clean and once again return to bouncing between the major and minor rosters. He has three assists in two AHL games this season. Maybe returning to that hot scoring could be enough to help the 25-year-old defender finally find his footing as an NHL hopeful.
Correction: Brannstrom was drafted by Vegas and the key piece to Ottawa in the trade return for Mark Stone.
That has been corrected in the piece, thank you for pointing it out. Hard trade to forget..!
Brannstrom himself was not worth a 4th, as Colorado also took back Poolman LTIR with retention.