Carson Soucy Waived by Blue Jackets After Brief Columbus Run

Carson Soucy is back on the waiver wire after a short stretch in Columbus gave him little room to establish himself. The Blue Jackets placed the former Vancouver Canucks defenseman on waivers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported, making the left-shot blueliner available to any NHL team willing to claim him.

The move comes after Soucy joined Columbus training camp on a professional tryout agreement and earned a contract for the season last month. His opportunity with the Blue Jackets has now stalled: he recorded one assist and a minus-5 rating in seven games, and had already been scratched for multiple contests. Those results and lineup decisions point to a fit that wasn’t taking hold in Columbus.

Soucy’s $1.15 million cap hit gives a potential claimant a relatively modest financial commitment. The more consequential question is what role a team would see for him. At 6-foot-5, he offers size and a defensive profile that has had value in the NHL, but his early season usage suggests he’d need to win a spot and regain consistency. A waiver claim would be a bet on that earlier body of work, not a guarantee of immediate minutes.

What a claim could offer

For a club looking to add depth on the left side, Soucy could provide another option without requiring a trade. The waiver process gives teams the chance to acquire a player who is available under his current contract, while the claim order determines which interested club gets him if more than one submits a claim. The source report does not say whether any team has shown interest or whether Soucy will be claimed.

That uncertainty matters. A defenseman’s value depends on more than height or past production: a team has to find a pairing and workload that suit him, and Soucy would need to earn a place in the lineup. Columbus had already sat him for multiple games, so a new club would be weighing both his experience and the fact that he hasn’t secured regular time there. If he clears waivers, the Blue Jackets would retain him within their organization under the applicable roster process.

Vancouver showed both sides of his game

The Canucks signed Soucy in the 2023 offseason to a three-year, $9.75 million contract. The deal reflected an expectation that the large defenseman could become a steady part of Vancouver’s blue line. His first season offered a useful picture of the potential: he had two goals and four assists for six points, 65 hits and a plus-10 rating in 40 games.

Soucy also contributed during Vancouver’s playoff run that season. In 12 games, he scored once, finished with five points and posted a plus-1 rating. That production added an offensive element to a player whose appeal was primarily his defensive presence and physical reach. His limited regular-season total of 40 games, though, is part of the context for assessing how much of that version a claimant can count on.

His second Canucks season brought a more difficult stretch. Soucy scored three goals and recorded 10 points with a minus-13 rating across 59 games in 2024-25. Vancouver then traded him to the New York Rangers for a conditional 2025 third-round pick. He has since moved through the Rangers and New York Islanders before landing with Columbus.

Across 99 games over two seasons in Vancouver, Soucy collected five goals, 11 assists and 16 points, along with 151 hits and a minus-3 rating. Those totals capture a defenseman whose contribution wasn’t built around scoring. They also show how his results changed from his first year to his second, a reminder that a new team would be taking on some uncertainty alongside the potential value.

For Columbus, the waiver placement opens a path to move on from a player who had fallen out of the lineup. For another NHL club, the appeal is clear enough: a 6-foot-5 left-shot defender with playoff experience and a $1.15 million cap hit. Whether that combination draws a claim will depend on each team’s defensive needs, roster space and confidence that Soucy can turn his next opportunity into regular work.