The Vancouver Canucks enter today with the kind of leverage every team wants and very few get: first crack at the waiver wire.
Because they finished the 2025-26 season with the worst record in the NHL, they sit at the top of the claim order to open the year. That puts them in position to grab any player who becomes available on waivers - if they see someone worth pouncing on.
Yesterday’s waiver class already came and went without a claim, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, who reported that all 15 players cleared. That group included Dallas goalie Brandon Halverson; Detroit’s Jacob Bryson, Cameron Butler, Sheldon Dries, William Lagesson, John Leonard, and Dominik Shine; Nashville’s Jake Lucchini; the Islanders’ Ethan Bear and Henrik Tikkanen; the Rangers’ Dennis Cholowski, Justin Dowling, Juuso Parssinnen, and Urho Vaakanainen; and Washington forward Ludwig Persson.
Today’s board is larger, with 34 players on waivers from around the league, including three Canucks names in Cole Clayton, Trey Fix-Wolansky, and Jimmy Schuldt. Vancouver also has a familiar cluster of former players and prospects in the mix: Christian Wolanin, Spencer Martin, Danila Klimovich, Jack Studnicka, and Cole McWard.
The Canucks’ problem, at least on paper, is that the list doesn’t offer much in the way of obvious young upside. Only 11 of the 34 players are 25 or younger: Maxence Guenette, James Malatesta, Domenick Fensore, Ozzy Wiesblatt, Nolan Foote, Taylor Gauthier, Ethan Cardwell, McWard, Jakub Demek, and Joe Fleming, along with Klimovich.
Two of those younger names can probably be crossed off quickly from Vancouver’s point of view. Klimovich and McWard already had their run in the organization and didn’t make it work the first time around, making a reunion feel unlikely.
That leaves a smaller cluster of possible targets. Guenette is a 6-foot-2 right-shot defenseman who has spent the last five seasons in the American League.
Malatesta is a smaller winger who has had a rough stretch offensively at the AHL level, putting up just 22 points in 98 games over the past two seasons. Fensore, a 5-foot-9 left-shot defender, had the best offensive season of that group last year with 10 goals and 35 points in 65 AHL games, though that may be where his ceiling sits.
Foote brings a different kind of résumé. The son of former Canucks coach Adam Foote has bounced between the NHL and AHL for six seasons, and he’s been a steady scorer in the minors at 0.65 points per game. The catch is that he has never managed to make it stick at the NHL level.
Gauthier has mostly been in the ECHL. Demek has the frame teams like to dream on at 6-foot-4 and 203 pounds, but injuries limited him to only four AHL games last season. Fleming is more of a grinder-type option, listed as both a winger and defenseman on EliteProspects and split between the AHL and ECHL.
Wiesblatt stands out as the most notable name in the group. A former first-round pick, he played 40 NHL games last season, but produced just one goal and five points.
Cardwell is another player worth watching. He was slowed by injuries in 2025-26, appearing in only 24 AHL games and posting seven goals and 15 points, but his scoring track record goes back further than that, and he has earned NHL games in each of the last two seasons.
In Other News...
Canucks Camp Cuts Just Changed The Final Roster Battle
The Canucks trimmed their camp roster by 15 players as they moved to get down to the 23-man limit before the Sept. 28 deadline, a standard but meaningful step that also sharpens the picture for the final days of camp. Among the notable moves, Adam Novotn was sent back to junior hockey, while Kirill Kudryavtsev was assigned to Abbotsford and Ilya Safonov is also set to begin the season in the AHL.
Several others on professional tryout deals or AHL contracts were either cut or placed on waivers, which is where the real roster pressure now settles in. With the first round of trimming done, the last few forward and defense spots have become even more defined, and the decisions ahead will say plenty about which players the Canucks trust to open the year in Vancouver versus continuing their development in Abbotsford. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Make Expected Adam Novotny Move With Bigger Roster Questions Ahead
The Canucks have made the expected call on Adam Novotny, sending the 2026 first-rounder back to the Peterborough Petes after trimming the roster. It is the kind of move that usually follows the draft for a player of his age, but Novotny still left a positive impression at development camp and in preseason action, enough to suggest Vancouver is already seeing the upside that made him the 24th pick overall.
For now, Novotny heads back to junior with his long-term path still very much intact, while the bigger roster picture continues to take shape around him. Sawyer Mynio and Kirill Kudryatsev have been assigned to Abbotsford, and Victor Mancini and Guillaume Brisebois remain in the mix for spots with the Canucks, so the organization still has a few decisions to settle as camp narrows toward opening night. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Pettersson Buzz Comes With One Massive Catch
Frank Seravallis latest comments have put Elias Pettersson back at the center of the Canucks rumor mill, and this time the speculation reaches well beyond a simple deadline-day conversation. The NHL insider raised the possibility that Pettersson may not even finish the current season in Vancouver, a striking thought for a player who remains one of the franchises defining names even as his recent play and contract situation have complicated the conversation around him.
Detroit has already surfaced as one of the teams people are watching in that chatter, with Minnesota and Dallas also mentioned as possible fits if the Canucks ever decide to explore the market. But there is a major obstacle layered into any such discussion: Petterssons trade value is hard to pin down, and his no-movement clause gives him significant say in where this story goes next. For now, it is still only buzz, not a deal, which leaves the Canucks with plenty to sort through before anything becomes real. [Read more 🡒]