The Calgary Flames made a surprising move Monday morning, placing forward Connor Zary on waivers alongside defenceman Brayden Pachal. If both players clear, Calgary can send them to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers - but with top waiver priority, the Vancouver Canucks get first crack at Zary.
That puts the question squarely in Vancouver’s lap: does claiming him make sense?
On paper, Zary is exactly the kind of player a team in the Canucks’ position can gamble on. He’s 25, was drafted 24th overall by Calgary in 2020, and is in the second year of a three-year deal carrying a $3.775 million AAV.
He’s also got a track record that suggests more is in there than what the Flames are seeing right now. Zary produced 34 points in his first NHL season and followed that with 52 points over the next two years combined.
But Calgary’s decision to expose him to waivers says plenty about where things stand. The Flames are off to a brutal start, sitting last in the NHL at 0-3 and getting outscored 16-3.
Zary has one assist through two games, but the bigger concern appears to be what’s happened since a pair of knee injuries in 2025. According to Daily Faceoff Calgary’s Robert Munnich, the burst and creativity that once stood out have faded, his foot speed has dipped, and he’s reportedly been at odds with head coach Ryan Huska over his play.
“There have been 2 versions of Connor Zary. Before and after the knee injury.
Before the injury, Zary was electric and looked like he could be a skilled middle six forward in the NHL. Unfortunately he's never been the same since the injury.
His skating took a massive step back.”
For Vancouver, though, the risk is minimal. The Canucks have enough cap room - nearly $16.5 million - to fit him in without issue, and if the experiment doesn’t work, they can simply put him back on waivers later. That’s the appeal here: a chance to land an extra scorer without giving up anything in return.
The trickier part is finding him a spot. Zary is a natural centre, but he most recently lined up on the right wing with Ryan Strome and Samuel Honzek.
Vancouver’s centre depth is already set up fairly well with Elias Pettersson, Paul Cotter, Max Sasson, Aatu Räty, and natural centre Marco Rossi currently on the wing. So if Zary comes in, wing looks like the clearest fit.
Even there, someone has to come out. Räty’s faceoff work makes him hard to move out of the lineup right now, and the Canucks are high on Arshdeep Bains as a depth forward and as proof of what a promotion from Abbotsford can look like. That leaves Brendan Gallagher as the most obvious option, especially after a rough opening stretch in which he has looked a step behind and hasn’t generated much offence in his first three games with Vancouver.
Räty also made his season debut Saturday after Jake DeBrusk came down with the flu last week, which only adds to the current roster picture. DeBrusk’s return will change the discussion again, but right now Zary looks like a clean fit for what the Canucks need.
He’d project as a middle-six winger in Vancouver, and the beauty of the move is that there’s no real downside. If the old version of Connor Zary is still buried under the knee injuries, the Canucks can move on. If not, they may have found a useful scorer for free.
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