Canucks waive Chris Higgins, intend to buy him out
Five months after the Vancouver Canucks announced they were exploring trade options for Chris Higgins and then later demoted him to the AHL, the team has decided to waive 33-year-old forward again, this time time with the intent of buying him out.
According to General Fanager, buying out the final year of Higgins’ deal saves the Canucks $1.666 million this coming season. There will be a $833,333 hit on Vancouver’s cap picture for 2016-17 and 2017-18.
The Canucks tried to find a trade partner in January for Higgins, who only scored three times in 33 games this season. No one gave GM Jim Benning a call, so a day later he was waived and sent to Utica of the AHL where he’d post 9-4-13 in 22 games.
Injuries hampered Higgins this season, leading to an unproductive campaign that caused a decline offensively and also saw his possession numbers drop from 50 percent over the last two seasons to 46 percent, per Corsica Hockey.
We know that Benning has his sights set on some big names on free agency — Steven Stamkos, Milan Lucic — so this move will free up a little bit more space to help lure a big fish to Vancouver.
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
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