Vancouver Canucks preseason: Top 5 players too risky to put on waivers

The Vancouver Canucks have experimented with the waivers before and have learned a costly lesson not to risk losing young assets via the waiver wire.

The beginning of the 2017-18 NHL season for the Vancouver Canucks means that it has been two years since the infamous incident that cost the club prospect defenceman Frank Corrado to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Canucks did not trade Corrado to the Leafs. Vancouver did not get anything in return. Corrado was lost for naught. That’s the power of the waiver wire. The blackhole that can make nothing out of something.

The Canucks also lost forward Emerson Etem to the Anaheim Ducks a similar way this time last season, only months after spending former first-round pick Nicklas Jensen and a fifth-round pick to pry him away from the New York Rangers.

Not all was bad for Vancouver on the waiver front last season, however, as the club picked up forwards Joseph Cramarossa and Reid Boucher, deciding to re-sign the latter for the upcoming season.

Preseason is heating up and that means that the competition is heating up. The first round of cuts was announced yesterday, as the club sent six players down to their junior teams so they can join their teammates in CHL camp/preseason.

This means that the remaining 26 forwards, 18 defencemen and 4 netminders will be playing for the Canucks, the AHL’s Utica Comets, the ECHL Kalamazoo Wings or overseas.

All players reporting to the AHL or the ECHL will have to go through the waivers, at which time all 30 other NHL clubs will be able to pick them up for free of charge.

Now with the basic waivers rules down, let’s get to how they affect the Vancouver Canucks this season. Here are the five players the Canucks cannot risk losing on waivers this season.