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Canucks make final cuts and here's who they can snag off waivers

Preston Hodgkinson
Preston Hodgkinson
|
Sep 27 2026, 8:19 pm
Canucks make final cuts and here's who they can snag off waivers
Bob Frid/Imagn Images

The final cuts are in for the Vancouver Canucks, but they might not be finished tinkering with their roster quite yet.

On Sunday, the team announced that they had waived goaltender Nikita Tolopilo, officially bringing the Canucks to the NHL’s 23-man roster limit. It’s not shocking to see Tolopilo not make the cut, as Vancouver has all of Thatcher Demko, Kevin Lankinen, and Leevi Meriläinen ahead of him on the depth chart.

It does, however, have some implications for the rest of the roster. The most notable is that both defenceman Guillaume Brisebois and forward Arshdeep Bains seem to have made the Canucks’ opening-night roster.

The 26-year-old Tolopilo entered Canucks training camp as the default NHL backup with Demko injured and unlikely to start the season on time. However, his chances of sticking in the big leagues were severely hampered after the Canucks picked Meriläinen off waivers last week. 

The Belarusian netminder recorded an underwhelming 6-11-2 record and an .881 save percentage in 21 games with the Canucks last season.

While this move seemingly cements Vancouver’s opening night roster, there is still a chance that they could make additional adjustments through the waiver wire. A number of interesting players hit waivers on Sunday, and the Canucks have first dibs to pick up any of their liking.

The players that GM Ryan Johnson could look at claiming tomorrow include:

  • Laurent Brossoit (ANA)
  • Henri Jokiharju  (BOS)
  • Jusso Valimaki (CAR)
  • Vinnie Hinostroza (COL)
  • Fabien Lysell (COL)
  • Colin Blackwell (DAL)
  • Nathan Bastian (FLA)
  • John Beecher (FLA)
  • Sam Lafferty (FLA)
  • Alexander Petrovic (FLA)
  • Cole Schwindt (FLA)
  • Sasha Pastujov (MTL)
  • Ilya Lyubushkin (NSH)
  • Nick Perbix (NSH)
  • Dylan Garand (NYR)
  • Taylor Raddysh (NYR)
  • Ville Heinola (VGK)
  • Alexander Holtz (VGK)

There is a good mix of forwards and defencemen in that group that could definitely be of interest to the Canucks, and even a few goaltenders who could raise an eyebrow from management. Though it does seem that Vancouver is set on their goaltenders to start the season.

We will find out at 11 a.m. PCT on Monday morning whether or not the Canucks have opted to claim any of these players. The final 23-man roster will need to be set in stone later on Monday at 2 p.m. PCT.

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