Canucks lose Brendan Leipsic on waivers to a Western Conference rival.

The Vancouver Canucks have lost a player through the waivers process.

On Sunday the Canucks made the decision to place forward Brendan Leipsic on waivers and the move has cost them in the end. According to a report from Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Elliote Friedman Leipsic has been claimed by Western Conference rivals the Los Angeles Kings, a team that is now clearly desperate for help on the offensive side of the ice. This marks the second waiver from the Kings in the last 2 days, the 1st being former Montreal Canadiens 1st round pick Nikita Scherbak.

It's a significant loss for the Canucks who were using Leipsix fairlyu regularly in their line up in spite of the fact that he was currently being waived. Leipsic had appeared in 17 games for the Canucks this season, recording 2 goals and 3 assists for a total of 5 points but was also a plus minus of -10 on the season. The Kings are going to have some cap issues when their injured players begin to return to the line up so it's entirely possible that a player like Leipsic could find himself on the waiver wire once again this season, but there's no guarantee that the Canucks could claim him at that point or that they would even want to do so. 

Fans in Vancouver will not really have time to worry too much about the departure of Leipsic today however as the Canucks have already orchestrated a pretty shrewd move to acquire a talented forward. Likely in part due to the fact that they knew they were going to lose Leipsic, the Canucks orchestrated a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, a trade that will add former Maple Leafs forward Josh Leivo to their current roster. It was not only a solid move from the Canucks but they have given up relatively little in order to pull it off. 

According to the official report on the trade the Canucks only gave up career American hockey League forward Michael Carcone who, while an important point producer for the Utica Comets, has never done anything at the NHL level. Leivo is a promising forward who couldn't crack the Leafs stacked forward group and will likely make a solid addition to the Canucks.

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