The Canucks announced today via another press release that they have reassigned forward Chris Higgins to the Utica Comets. This isn’t at all unexpected, given that he was placed on waivers yesterday and cleared this morning, not to mention the circus that went along with announcing that he was on the trade block a few days ago.

Nevertheless, this has a very strange feeling to it. Higgins isn’t a journeyman call up that was eventually bound for the AHL. He’s a long time NHL player, one that recently played his 700th NHL game, and was a huge part of the Canucks 2011 Stanley Cup Final run.

There’s no denying that his production has tailed off disastrously this season, and that, coupled with his cap hit and general lack of interest from other teams, is why he finds himself in this situation.

It’s been a year to forget for Higgins, who has just two goals and an assist to show for 25 games this season. He broke his foot blocking a shot in the very first pre-season game, missed a significant amount of time, and never seemed to catch up after that.

The latest edition of the Chris Higgins saga really took flight three days ago when the Canucks announced via a press release that they were exploring trade options for the veteran forward, with Benning basically elaborating that he was politely asked to go away while they tried to find him a new home.

When they’d exhausted the trade front, waivers and a demotion to the AHL were the only option.

Higgins hasn’t played in the AHL since the full-season lockout in 2004-05, at which point he was in the Montreal Canadiens system and had just two NHL games to his credit. Since then, he had 701 more games, including 306 as a Canuck. To date, he has totaled 332 NHL points (164 goals, 168 assists).

As an AHLer, he managed 99 points (49 goals, 50 assists) across two seasons with the Hamilton Bulldogs. Undoubtedly he would be a positive addition to the Utica Comets lineup that has lost six straight games and is hurting for goal production. The Comets are already missing Ronalds Kenins and Blair Jones, and now Alex Grenier is doubtful with an upper body injury. The Comets have added ECHL players in their place, calling up Curtis Valk and signing Michael Pereira and Brandon Marino to PTOs.

Still, it will seem unnatural watching Chris Higgins in Utica threads, same colours though they are. I thought seeing Linden Vey as a Comet early in the season was a little amusing. This will be downright strange.

The Canucks will save a cool $950,000 off the cap as a result of this maneuver. It’s pretty clear now that the youth movement is in full swing and the casualties are starting to pile up. At this point, Alex Burrows had better watch out.

Where Chris Higgins goes from here is a mystery. It’s well publicized that he has one year remaining on a deal worth $2.5 million, which looked good a couple of seasons ago but now looks terrible next to “two goals in 25 games”. Though there were no takers on a deal to this point, it seems likely that the Canucks will continue to try to move Higgins through to the trade deadline and throughout the off-season, so as to give the bearded veteran a fair chance to continue to play in the NHL.

While reluctantly keeping him within the organization, the Canucks have likely passed the point of no return with Higgins. Even if hit by a flurry of injuries, it seems that Higgins would be very far down the list of call ups, given that they’ve already publicly announced just how hard they tried to get rid of him.

Chris Higgins was a good Canuck in his time here. He married a local girl and had his first child in this city. Like many Canuck fans, I wish him all the best and hope that he finds he way back to the NHL at some point, where ever it may be.