Just two days after making public their desire to trade veteran winger Chris Higgins, the team has placed Higgins on waivers.
The team announced their desire to find a trade home for Higgins on Saturday, with Elliotte Friedman confirming that the team would not have Higgins practice or play with the team while the process played out.
While there were reports of teams showing some interest, there wasn’t enough interest in the struggling 32-year-old forward with two years left on his contract at an AAV of $2.5 million to produce a trade and avoid having to place him on waivers.
Vancouver is looking to hand the keys to the car over to some of the younger players in the organization and with cap troubles at hand, they need to find a way to clear a little space. Waiving Higgins may be their last chance to clear his $2.5 million off the books for the remainder of this season and next. It’s estimated that the team has just over $100,000 in cap space available currently, with $13.9 million in salary sitting on injured reserve. Of the four players that make that $13.9 million, only Brandon Sutter’s $3.3 million AAV is on long-term injured reserve.