{"id":455931,"date":"2026-02-12T18:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455931\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:51:16","slug":"vancouver-canucks-organization-announce-the-sudden-departure-of-veteran-defenseman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455931\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Canucks organization announce the sudden departure of veteran defenseman"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nVancouver Canucks organization announce the sudden departure of veteran defenseman
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n

Vancouver Hockey Daily has no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, NHL or NHLPA<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Derek <\/p>\n

Photo credit: ECHL<\/p>\n

The Vancouver Canucks organization has announced the departure of a former NCAA defenseman this week after splitting the 2025-26 season between the AHL & ECHL.<\/p>\n

While the Vancouver Canucks and the National Hockey League might be on a break for the 2026 Winter Olympics, both of the team’s minor league affiliates – the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks and ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings – have been quite busy.<\/p>\n

“Following are the ECHL transactions for Saturday, February 7, 2026:<\/p>\n

WAIVER CLAIMS:<\/p>\n

Rapid City:
Blake Christensen, F (from Kalamazoo)”<\/p>\n

Fast forward to yesterday and the Abbotsford Canucks have made a big decision regarding one of their defenseman that signed with them as a free agent last summer.<\/p>\n

Vancouver Canucks organization announces departure of former NCAA defenseman<\/p>\n

In a post on social media on Wednesday, the Abbotsford Canucks announced that they’ve decided to release defenseman Derek Daschke from his contract, making him an unrestricted free agent.<\/p>\n

“The following transaction has occurred:<\/p>\n

-Abbotsford releases D Derek Daschke from his standard player\u2019s contract.” the Abbotsford Canucks said on X.<\/p>\n

Daschke, a native of Troy, Michigan, spent five seasons in the NCAA – four with the University of Miami (Ohio) and one with the University of Minnesota-Duluth – before making the jump to professional hockey at the tail end of the 2022-23 campaign.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old blueliner joined the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings for the 2023-24 season, appearing in 72 games, before leaving the club as a free agent and signing with the Utah Grizzlies.<\/p>\n

“Abbotsford Canucks General Manager, Ryan Johnson, announced today that the club has signed defencemen Nikolai Knyzhov, Derek Daschke and Jayden Lee, as well as forward Nolan Walker to one-year AHL contracts ahead of the 2025-26 season.” the Abbotsford Canucks said in a press release last summer.<\/p>\n

In 13 games with the Abbotsford Canucks this season, Daschke registered one assist and also added eight points (five goals, three assists) in nine games with the Kalamazoo Wings.<\/p>\n

Previously on Vancouver Hockey Daily<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

2 HOURS AGO|39 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Vancouver Canucks organization announce the sudden departure of veteran defenseman<\/p>\n

Are you surprised that the Abbotsford Canucks released Derek Daschke?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" …\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5128],"tags":[894,24430,55378,55377,5,4,893,27,5692,8742,5313],"class_list":{"0":"post-455931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver-canucks","8":"tag-canucks","9":"tag-derek-daschke","10":"tag-derek-daschke-abbotsford","11":"tag-derek-daschke-canucks","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-vancouver","15":"tag-vancouver-canucks","16":"tag-vancouver-canucks-news","17":"tag-vancouver-canucks-rumors","18":"tag-vancouvercanucks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116059170374367451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}