With the return of Jay Beagle and the addition of Josh Leivo, there needed to be another roster move made today to make room and the Canucks have done so by loaning Sam Gagner to the Toronto Marlies of the AHL

This is the second time this season that the Canucks have loaned Gagner to the Maple Leafs affiliate, as it allows him to be closer to his family.

Gagner appeared in seven games for the Canucks since being recalled on November 18th, he registered one goal and two assists in that time. If Gagner had appeared in three more games with the Canucks, he would’ve recovered waivers to head back to the AHL, furthermore, assuming that he was assigned after 2 pm (given the time of the tweet), Gagner had been on the Canucks roster for 17 days and thus had 13 more days available before requiring waivers by the day count.

There is some benefit to sending him down now, to avoid waiver exemption expiring, as an acquiring team would be able to directly send him to their AHL team before recalling him. With that being said, that would require a deal to be made and it’s hard to envision that happening now with the cap hit still remaining.

Gagner has seven goals and eight assists in 15 AHL games with the Marlies so far this season.

The Canucks take on the Minnesota Wild at 7 PM tonight.