Waived: [VAN] D Erik Brannstrom waived by the Canucks (cleared)

[WarriorofTime]

Theres just too many of these skilled small dmen now and not enough pp1 spots for someone who doesnt even have an elite shot.

Yeah, teams need like 5 PK'ing defenseman and basically only 1 PP defenseman as your 2nd unit doesn't get a ton of time, so the guy you put there isn't that important. PK though.. you never don't take an opportunity to switch so you don't get trapped. When you don't PK well enough for a coach to trust you, you're a pretty big liability from a lineup construction standpoint. The extra whammy for Brannstrom is he doesn't have a career track record that suggests good PP defenseman blocked by an elite one. He had some good opportunity in Ottawa but never took advantage.

 

[tyhee]

He swapped to the right side once and was dreadful the whole game. They never went back to it afterwards

On the other hand, in that game the pair of Forbort-Brannstrom was notable mostly in not getting caved in the way that Forbort-Desharnais had gotten caved in when that pair had been tried earlier. Brannstrom wasn't on the ice for any goals, for or against, and didn't take any penalties as the Canucks won 3-2 in San Jose on November 2.

While Brannstrom wasn't good in that game I considered it a minor success. He and Forbort had been less bad than the pair of Forbort-Desharnais had been when tried previously.

On the other hand Brannstrom played less than 11 minutes in the game while Forbort got an additional 4 and a half minutes without him, so pretty clearly Tocchet wasn't happy playing him on the right side. Was Tocchet minimizing his playing time because he was making too many mistakes or was he not getting playing time because Tocchet wasn't comfortable playing him on his off side?

My guess is that it was probably a little of both, that Brannstrom's early play probably reinforced Tocchet's expectations, but I was surprised, given how bad the Canucks' 3rd pairing had been otherwise and that Brannstrom was reported to feel comfortable on the right, that the Canucks didn't give it another try.

 

[Oilslick941611]

Obviously NHL GMs are dumb, NHL coaches like Tocchet are dumb unlike all of the brilliant hockey minds that can be found on this website.

The coaches see everything, behind the scenes, interactions, how the players train,how hard or not hard they go in practice, how well they listen etc. Fans only see the games. 99% of time, im trusting the management over HF hockey minds when it comes to players.

 

[Three On Zero]

The coaches see everything, behind the scenes, interactions, how the players train,how hard or not hard they go in practice, how well they listen etc. Fans only see the games. 99% of time, im trusting the management over HF hockey minds when it comes to players.

That can be refuted by management and “change of scenery” trades where the traded player goes on to have a better career with the new team.

Good example is Podkolzin, Tocchet didn’t trust him and had him on a short leash. Gets traded away and is a staple on another teams 2nd line. Fans knew the skill set he provided but the coach wouldn’t let him play his game.

 

[Bgav]

Hronek rejoined the team, probably why brannstrom has been waived

 

[barriers]

 

[WarriorofTime]

Guess everyone is dumb except Canuck fans and twitter analytic zealots.

 

[Metalwood]

He clears so much ado about nothing lmao

 

[bringbacktheskate604]

Hronek rejoined the team, probably why brannstrom has been waived

I wanna believe that but it might be a little early based on the original time line of the 29th of January. Tochett did say he was one the ice earlier than expected.

Could be they felt they had a better chance to get him through but even if he was claimed, the cap space was always paramount. Was really hoping he could have been at least decent defensively in a 2ND pairing role because Soucy sucks and Erik is an upgrade on anyone offensively after 43, 17 and 57.

Playing in Abby regularly in likely top minutes at some point in a similar system, might be a good thing, even if ends up with us getting a 3rd round pick?

 

[Brookbank]

Thank Christ he cleared. They really did devalue him before they waived. Maybe that was part of the plan

This player really needs to transition to a forward