Is Anyone Going To Claim Brandon Manning?

There’s been a fair bit of action over the last couple of days, but today belongs to Brandon Manning. More specifically, Brandon Manning is on waivers, and I really hope he gets to continue his NHL dream in another city when another team scoops him up tomorrow.

You will recall Brandon Manning’s triumphant entrance onto the Edmonton Oilers hockey club. Former General Manager Peter Chiarelli acquired Brandon Manning from the Chicago Blackhawks way, way back in late December of 2018. To acquire Manning, the Oilers shipped Drake Caggiula (who was the fourth leading scorer on the Oilers at the time) along with Jason Garrison for Manning and Robin Norell. Partly because he was a mean dude, Chiarelli thought it prudent to acquire the services of the man who is responsible for breaking Connor McDavid’s collarbone during the superstar’s rookie campaign. That’s got to do wonders for all that locker room chemistry I keep hearing about.

Oh, you better believe the fans loved every minute of this deal. (Narrator: They didn’t)

Fast forward 50 days, and the oft-scratched Manning has been placed on waivers. Andrej Sekera is likely to return as soon as tomorrow, and moving Manning down to Bakersfield will free up an additional million in cap space.

I’m not too sure about how many teams would be interested in snatching up the services of Manning, but if there is one, that’d be great. Manning is signed through the 2019-20 season at 2.25MM, and though his cap hit isn’t a crippler for most teams, he’s probably (at best) the seventh defencemen on most teams.

Yeah, give me this all day and all night. If the Canucks want to snatch up Manning, they can help undo at least part of this lopsided deal that Chiarelli orchestrated just seven weeks ago. Picking up 2.25 million in cap space with a week to go before the trade deadline would be an excellent way to get selling season started.