The Vancouver Canucks may be at the bottom of the NHL standings, but they’re at the top of another list: the waiver claim priority order. And that may ultimately be more significant than it sounds on the surface.

When a player is placed on waivers by a team, the other 31 teams are free to claim that player, and they’re given the opportunity to do so in a set order of priority. Up until November 1, that priority list is determined by the previous season’s standings. After that, it is based on the current season’s standings and shifts and changes as teams move up and down the chart.

So, right now, with the Canucks in dead last, they’re first up to claim any player who hits the waiver wire. Until they move up the standings, they have first dibs. Depending on who ends up on waivers, that could be at least a little useful in and of itself. But it might prove more useful in an indirect way, and that’s through helping navigate the waters of some impending trades.

It’s no secret that the Canucks are going to, eventually, start selling off some veterans. When it comes to acquiring picks and prospects in return for those players, that’s no problem, as such transactions go pretty smoothly. It’s any trade in which a more veteran player might be part of the return to Vancouver, where things could get complicated, especially if no-trade clauses enter the picture. Very few players want to play on a bottom-feeder, and that’s what the Canucks are right now. Getting players to waive any NTCs to go to Vancouver could prove an issue if that’s what is required to close a deal.

But waivers have been used as a creative solution to such an issue in the past. The most prominent recent example of this is the trade that sent Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks last year. At first, Trouba was unwilling to waive his 15-team NTC for the Ducks, wishing to stay in New York. But then the Rangers threatened to put Trouba on waivers, where the Ducks – or someone even worse than them – would have been free to claim him. Trouba decided that maybe Anaheim didn’t sound so bad, and agreed to waive his NTC after all.

And it’s worked out great! Trouba has renewed his career in Anaheim and is playing some of the best hockey of his career. He’s set himself up perfectly for a new contract after this year, and surely has few regrets about the whole process.

That’s really a best-case scenario. It’s also not exactly what we’re talking about when it comes to the Canucks. We don’t think the Canucks are going to seek out anyone like Trouba, and for a multitude of reasons. Big-name veterans are not what they should be shopping for, and the idea of bringing in someone for the long-term who doesn’t want to be in Vancouver sounds like a way to sour the vibes even further.

But we do think a similar process could work out in the Canucks’ favour when it comes to accepting cap dumps as a part of their veteran-selling endeavours.

We can illustrate what we’re talking about with an example. Let’s use the New Jersey Devils, since we’ve talked about them as a potential trade partner recently. For this hypothetical scenario, let’s imagine that the Devils are wishing to trade for Quinn Hughes, but that they need to move some salary out in order to do so. Let’s imagine that, for whatever reason, salary retention isn’t cutting it.

So, the Devils look at their roster, and they decide that someone like, say, Stefan Noesen and his $2.75 million cap hit needs to go in order to make room. He’s only got three points on the year at that price. The simplest thing to do would be to just include Noesen in the trade with Vancouver as the proverbial ‘dump.’ But Noesen has a 10-team NTC, and let’s say he doesn’t want to waive it in order to go from a contending team to a draft lottery finalist.

Well, the Devils wouldn’t really need him to waive his NTC. They could just place him on waivers; the Canucks would have first crack at claiming him, and if they agreed to do so to finalize the trade, that would be that. The Devils include an extra draft pick in the deal to compensate the Canucks for taking on the dump, and both sides are a little happier – even if Noesen himself is not.

In other words, because they’re at the top of the waiver priority chart, the Canucks are a potential destination for most cap dumps, whether those cap dumps want it or not. This is an advantage to the Canucks, because it makes them easier for contending teams to trade with.

We should mention here that this only applies to NTCs. The player the Devils would really love to dump is Ondrej Palat, who has a $6 million cap hit and just five points on the season. But Palat has a no-movement clause in addition to his no-trade clause, and the NMC precludes the Devils from placing Palat on waivers without his say-so.

This was key in the Trouba transaction. Prior to last season, Trouba had an NMC. But that NMC turned into an NTC as of July 1, 2024, and it didn’t take the Rangers too many months to take advantage of that change.

There are some ethical concerns at play. The other Rangers didn’t seem to be too happy with how Trouba, their captain, was treated, and they’ve sort of tanked as a team ever since. But for one, those ethical concerns are mainly on the part of the team doing the dumping. And, for two, if a player has put themselves into a position to be a cap dump and haven’t earned themselves an NMC, those are kind of the breaks.

The fact of the matter is that players on bad contracts still want to play on good teams, and very few players are willing to move from a contender to a struggling franchise if they have a choice in the matter. But if the Canucks are truly going to move a number of veterans, they’re going to have to find a way to take back some bad contracts all the same.

This waiver-based option is just that, an option. But having more options is undoubtedly good for a team in the Canucks’ position. More options on the table means more suitors in the running. And more suitors in the running should lead to bidding, which, in turn, should lead to higher returns.

And the benefits could continue from there. If the cap-dumped player truly doesn’t want to be in Vancouver, well, maybe the Canucks can put some retention on that contract and flip that player somewhere else for a profit. The possibilities are endless, and this is just one more tool to potentially be used as Canucks management attempts to navigate the dangerous waters of a sell-off.