You won’t find too many hockey prospects with more interesting stories than Brad Lambert. But is it a story worth picking up for the Vancouver Canucks’ home library?

First and foremost, this is a player named “Brad Lambert” who was born and raised in Finland. That’s, at the very least, unusual, and is the result of Lambert being born to a Canadian father playing overseas and a Finnish mother. Lambert’s uncle, Lane Lambert, played in the NHL and is the current head coach of the Seattle Kraken.

Beyond the family history, Lambert has long been considered a top prospect, especially prior to his being drafted. He started playing in the top Finnish pro league, the SM-Liiga, at the age of 15. The year before his draft year, Lambert led all under-18 players in the SM-Liiga in scoring, and began to be ranked quite highly for the 2022 Draft – as high as second overall by some pundits.

But then came a truly disastrous draft year. Lambert got off to a bad start with JYP Jyvsaskyla, mutually terminated his contract, and signed with the Lahti Pelicans instead. Between the two teams, he only managed four goals and ten points in 49 games.

Lambert’s previous hype, and his overall package of talent, was still intriguing enough for him to be ranked in the first round of the draft, but he even tumbled from there, falling down to 30^th overall, where the Winnipeg Jets selected him.

With all that said, it’s perhaps a curious decision for the Jets to have signed Lambert out of his first training camp and assign him to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose as an 18-year-old. Lambert stalled out there, too, and after 14 games, was re-assigned to the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL.

There, Lambert seemed to finally regain some of his previous momentum, notching 38 points in 26 regular games and adding 26 more in 17 postseason games en route to a WHL championship and a loss in the Memorial Cup finals.

Lambert kept it rolling in the 2023-24 season, when he rejoined the Moose and put up an impressive 55 points in 64 AHL games. That was good for second in rookie scoring and a spot on the All-Rookie Team. Lambert was recalled for the last game of the Jets’ regular season, making his debut against the Canucks and notching an assist. He was still only 20.

And that’s about where Lambert’s career hit the skids.

The next season, for 2024-25, Lambert struggled to crack the Jets’ roster for more than five games, and saw his AHL totals plummet to 35 points in 61 games. The next year, 2025-26, Lambert managed 25 games with the Jets but only six points. And again, his AHL production seemed to be going backwards, now down to 13 points in 34 games.

Coming into this current season, Lambert had run out of waiver exemption time. The Jets kept him on the roster to start the year, dressing him in 11 games, but he managed only one point and averaged 9:10 of ice time a night across those games.

That led to the Jets deciding to place Lambert on NHL waivers as of Tuesday, November 3.

And that’s where the Canucks, with their top waiver priority, might come in.

The story here is clear enough. Lambert is a prospect who was once enormously hyped, but who has been trending downward ever since his draft year, and sharply downward over the past couple of seasons. The question, then, is whether there’s enough chance of a rebound here for the Canucks to take a chance on him.

Talent-wise, Lambert is almost the prototypical “all the tools, no toolbox” sort of player. There have been many such cases throughout NHL history, and they’re often tempting, but those who put it all together are few and far between.

Lambert has a decent enough frame at 6’1” and around 183 pounds. He is said to have explosive and evasive skating, with Elite Prospects describing his skating posture as “perfect.” He is said to be able to combine this skating ability with his creative hands to fool defenders on a regular basis – at least, in theory.

He has a fine shot, but is really more of a puck-handler and playmaker. Were he to unlock his potential, Lambert could have the ability to be extremely good at some of those underrated things that are so vital to the modern game, like moving the puck up the ice and making zone entries.

He just hasn’t been able to do it on a consistent basis at the NHL, or even the AHL, level. Consistency, and a habit of playing on the periphery or in other uninvolved ways, are the primary critiques leveled at Lambert’s game.

Lambert is still just 22 years old. He’s only ever been a part of the Winnipeg Jets organization. He looks like a classic “change of scenery” candidate, and one has to imagine that at least one other NHL front office out there is going to think that they can do a better job of unlocking him and take a shot at him on waivers.

But will that be the Canucks?

At the current moment, it’s a fairly easy transaction for the Canucks to make. They’ve got Filip Chytil on the IR and Jacob Quillan recalled from Abbotsford. Making a claim on Lambert would be as simple as re-assigning Quillan and giving Lambert his spot on the roster.

That said, a player like Lambert is probably not going to thrive with the same fourth line minutes that Winnipeg has been giving him. There’s no one super obvious to boot out of the Canucks’ top-nine right now in lieu of Lambert, but their lineup has proven quite fluid so far this year. It’d be easy enough to work Lambert into the top-nine rotation for a while to see if that sparks anything in him.

Speaking of the Canucks’ top-nine, they’ve got Jonathan Lekkerimäki there right now, finally looking like an NHL player after years of not. Lekkerimäki was drafted 15 spots ahead of Lambert in the 2022 Entry Draft. Is that reason enough to believe in Lambert’s potential?

The Canucks, it should be noted, are on a bit of a roll when it comes to waiver claims after plucking Leevi Meriläinen from the Ottawa Senators.

The key thing here might be the low-risk nature of this claim. Right now, the Canucks don’t even have to place anyone on waivers to give Lambert a try. And if he doesn’t work out, what’s the harm? What’s he going to do, tank the Canucks’ season? Too late on that front!

In a worst-case scenario, Lambert goes back on waivers, and either goes to another franchise or back to Winnipeg or, maybe, down to Abbotsford to reinforce the AHL Canucks.

And, in a best-case scenario, the Canucks could have another useful and unique asset on the wings that’s the right age to contribute all the way through the rebuild and whatever comes after that.

So, should the Canucks claim Brad Lambert on waivers from the Winnipeg Jets today? The truest answer is probably “why not?”