Canucks Place Lukas Reichel On Waivers

As a result of yesterday’s blockbuster trade with the Wild, the Canucks had some roster juggling to do after bringing in three players and only sending one out with only one roster spot available.  They dealt with one of the extra slots by putting Marco Rossi on their injured reserve.  But one player had to come off the roster and it will be winger Lukas Reichel, who will be placed on waivers at 1 PM CT, reports Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic (Twitter link).

Jeff Paterson of Canucks Army relayed (Twitter link) earlier today that Reichel had been removed from Vancouver’s active roster.  Players can be waived with non-roster status and that’s clearly the move that the Canucks have made to get back to compliance.

This was not the plan for Vancouver when they moved a 2027 fourth-round pick to Chicago to acquire him back in October.  Reichel had gotten off to a good start with four points in five games before the swap but had fallen down the depth chart, resulting in the Blackhawks giving him a fresh start elsewhere.

Reichel played big minutes upon being acquired, even spending time at center with Vancouver’s injury issues at that position.  But the production simply hasn’t materialized as he has just one assist in 14 games following the swap.  Meanwhile, his role diminished to the point where he has only played once in the last ten games.  Over his career, Reichel has 22 goals and 37 assists in 188 NHL appearances.

The 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Chicago back in 2020, going 17th overall.  He’s in the second and final season of a two-year, $2.4MM pact and will be owed a $1.3MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights to become an unrestricted free agent.  Based on how things are going, it seems likely that he’s heading towards a non-tender.

That said, players with first-round pedigree often get multiple opportunities so it’s not impossible to think that a team might be interested in taking a flyer on Reichel by 1 PM CT on Sunday, hoping that a different fresh start could get him going offensively.  If not and he goes through unclaimed, Vancouver will ultimately clear $1.15MM of his $1.2MM cap charge off the books by assigning him to AHL Abbotsford which would allow them to get out of using LTIR and allow them to start banking salary cap room again.