To make room for the return of Dan Hamhuis for tomorrow’s tilt against the Calgary Flames, it was announced that the Vancouver Canucks placed Yannick Weber on waivers this morning. Weber hasn’t played a game since January 14th, he has appeared in 35 games this year for the Canucks where he has 5 assists.

Weber hasn’t been the same defenceman he was last year, where he had 11 goals. But he is still a serviceable NHL defenceman who can provide depth for a team. So, why was it Weber making his way to the waiver wire this morning?

With the return of Henrik Sedin and the impending return of Dan Hamhuis, it was inevitable that the Canucks were going to need to waive some players after the All-Star Break. It was the only option available to them to create roster space. The waiving of Brandon Prust earlier this week is clearly the right first step, as he was in a string of healthy scratches and wasn’t anywhere near as effective as he was before. Today, the Canucks had the option of waiving three players, Linden Vey, Adam Cracknell or Yannick Weber.

Arguably, Linden Vey was the best player for the Canucks last night. While you don’t want to base your decisions on one game, he has been playing well enough (and is young enough) that placing him on waivers for the second time this season didn’t seem like a good idea. So, Vey was off the table right off the bat.

That leaves us with Weber and Cracknell.

Like the aforementioned Prust, both had been playing sparingly recently and with a fully healthy team, they weren’t going to play unless being ‘forced’ back into the lineup. So now we have to look at them purely as an asset. Which one would have a better chance of clearing waivers?

Earlier this morning, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested that he had heard Weber was going to be placed on waivers, and suggested he may not clear:

Weber may still clear waivers and play for Utica, and then the Canucks flip him for a late round pick at the deadline. Now, it is a very possible scenario that he gets claimed, and the Canucks lose another depth defenceman for nothing. Defenceman are always at a premium and harder to acquire, which is something even GM Jim Benning mentioned this week. Given that Weber is also a right hand shot, that puts an even higher premium on his services. Since it is just over three weeks until the trading deadline, the possibility of him getting claimed would be even higher.

Regardless of what you think of Frankie Corrado, the Canucks losing him for nothing in October hurt their depth.

It was a risk that could’ve been avoided by just placing Adam Cracknell on waivers.

At the moment, the Canucks have 5 healthy centres on their roster with Henrik Sedin, Bo Horvat, Brandon Sutter, Linden Vey and Jared McCann (who played wing last night). So Cracknell is currently their sixth centre, who could play wing, but I doubt he gets in over McCann and Virtanen (nor should he). So it’s a fair argument that unless he is being put in the lineup because of the ‘plan’ for the kids, Cracknell will still be on press box duty for the next while. Cracknell was signed in last August by the Canucks and had 8 points in 39 games. He has played decent in his role, but players like him are frequently on waivers, so the chances of him clearing are much higher.

If the Canucks had placed Cracknell on waivers, and he was somehow claimed it wouldn’t have created a hole in their depth like losing Weber will do. If Cracknell was claimed and the Canucks faced injuries later on, they could’ve recalled anyone of Chris Higgins, Brandon Prust, Hunter Shinkaruk, Brendan Gaunce, Alexandre Grenier or Mike Zalewski. Otherwise, if Cracknell clears, he would be available to be recalled whenever an injury necessitated it. It would’ve been an easy fix.

Once again, regardless of Weber’s struggles this year, he should not have been the one making his way to the waiver wire today. With the trading deadline a few weeks away and the Canucks having a more reasonable option to waive, it seems negligent from an asset standpoint to waive Weber. 

At this time of year, so minor transactions here and there to protect your tradeable assets shouldn’t be an issue. It should be a huge factor in all your decision making.

There are obviously some cap space issues that likely played a part in this decision. But that was a corner they put themselves into through various other signings and moves throughout the year.

Just like Higgins and Prust, we will likely be told that the Canucks have been trying to find a trade partner for Weber and, unfortunately, couldn’t, so they had to waive Weber. That is likely due to teams betting that the swiss defenceman was going to be waived and didn’t want to give up assets in hopes that it came true.

Well, sadly, it became true.