Former First Round Pick Strongly Linked to the Vancouver Canucks' Future Acquisition Plans

The Vancouver Canucks enter the second quarter of the National Hockey League's 2025-26 season three points back of a playoff spot and with injuries continuing to pile up, General Manager Patrik Allvin has needed to bring in some external help.

Last month, Allvin acquired German forward Lukas Reichel from the Chicago Blackhawks and then over the weekend, signed veteran forward David Kampf to a one-year deal, who they hope will play a key role on the penalty kill, which has struggled since the season began.

With Vancouver hoping to remain in the mix for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Patrik Allvin is continuing to scour the market for potential upgrades and players who could help them achieve that goal and it appears that they could have success landing someone via the waiver wire on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman announced that the Pittsburgh Penguins have placed former first round pick Philip Tomasino on waivers in order to assign him to the American Hockey League's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Tomasino, 24, signed a one-year deal with the Penguins over the summer worth $1.75 million US and is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the 2025-26 campaign.

This season hasn't been very good for the Mississauga, Ontario native, who has just one assist and is a minus-two in nine games after registering 11 goals and 24 points the year prior with Nashville and Pittsburgh.

There's plenty of upside with Tomasino though and despite his success with the Penguins last season, it just hasn't worked out well this year and it's probably safe to say that Pittsburgh GM Kyle Dubas won't lose any sleep if the former first rounder is claimed off waivers today.

With the NHL's waiver order changing to the league's current standings back on November 1st, the Vancouver Canucks actually have a pretty good chance at being able to claim Tomasino on Wednesday, with only four teams ahead of them - Calgary (1st), Nashville (2nd), St. Louis (3rd) and Buffalo (4th).

In 218 career games with the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins, Tomasino has 95 points (34 goals, 61 assists), 49 penalty minutes and is a minus-11.