Habs and Streit Part Ways

Well, the AHL was a no-go for veteran defenseman Mark Streit, who signed a 1-year deal with Montreal in the off-season, but couldn't quite make it work through two games played.  With some added depth to the team's blueline in young player Victor Mete, the Habs wanted to move in the youthful direction, making Streit expendable.

The Canadiens tried to trade Streit, but couldn't make a deal.  Streit cleared waivers, but didn't want to move to the AHL over the weekend, so the waiver route was taken again, this time the unconditional waivers, he cleared, and now his contract has been terminated.

Benson took the veteran with his 12th round pick in the draft this year and he'll now have to sit with him doing nothing for the next seven weeks.  It's not the biggest crushing blow, but it is a gamble that has now blown up in his face. 

Still, Benson's team is still in great shape, despite not having any production from Streit, nor anymore to come, as his team is 7th, 4 points out of 2nd.

Morning Camp Demotions (Oct 3 - Draft Day Edition)

The young players of the Vancouver Canucks are already coming along and there was a push that sent one player that stuck around late last year, as forward Ronalds Kenins was demoted on Friday night, along with forward Brandon Gaunce. These guys didn't exactly have the worst camps out of the bunch, but they were falling just a bit short of some of the other youthful players in camp.

Kenins was projected in the 25-point range a couple of times in these preseason projections, so there was some upside to his game, if he was going to play full-time.  I would think he would get a bit more time through the season, but it appears that he's dropped in the depth chart in camp.

As expected, the call-ups by the Columbus Blue Jackets yesterday, did indeed head back to the AHL on Saturday morning, even though some of them had an excellent showing against the Buffalo Sabres in preseason play on Friday night.  Oliver Bjorkstrand and Sonny Milano headline the group heading back to the minors on Saturday morning, both should be early call-ups, if there are injuries, but for now, they'll stay down in the minors, working on their craft.

If you're looking to Columbus for some rookie help, Kerby Rychel and William Karlsson have been good for the team thus far and still might make it into the lineup this season.

The Edmonton Oilers raised a few eyebrows this morning, as they placed defenseman Nikita Nikitin on waivers for the purpose of assignment on Saturday morning.  Nikitin carries a $4.5 million cap hit, which wouldn't all be buried in the minors, but a good portion of it would be, $925,000 to be exact, much like Bryan Bickell of the Blackhawks.  Nikitin, however, does have a little bit of an upside to his game, so if someone is willing to take on that contract, he could certainly help out a team's depth.

Unfortunately, for draft purposes, we won't know if he's minors bound or picked up until tomorrow.  This would be a huge gamble on your blueline, if you were to pick him up.

The Pittsburgh Penguins made some sweeping cuts on Saturday morning, bringing their roster down to the 23-man limit, putting two bodies on the Injured Reserve (Eric Fehr & Tom Kuhnhackl), releasing one from their PTO (Sergei Gonchar) and demoting a few.  Included in those demotions was defenseman Derrick Pouliot, who couldn't quite make the opening night roster, despite a few outlets projecting him to do so.  He'll start the year in the AHL and he'll likely be an early call-up, when needed.

Click here for the updated injury/news page on the website

Afternoon Camp Demotions (Sep 30)

Another big rookie demotion on Wednesday afternoon, as the Edmonton Oilers decided to send defenseman Darnell Nurse down to the AHL, trying to work on his game. Nurse is among the elite draft picks they have in their system, but I could understand that the team wants to be a bit more mature in the back, if they are going to be so head strong and young up front. I don't think it will be long before Nurse makes his mark, which could still happen this season, as he is only in the minors and not juniors.

He's another player with a decent projection in a few magazines, so be weary of his status on draft day.

A couple of projected forwards saw demotions from the Predators camp, as Steve Moses and Colton Sissons were both sent down to the Milwaukee Admirals on Wednesday. Both were projected around the 3rd line of Nashville, so there wasn't a great loss to the pool projections, but they were there, if you were still looking for sleeper picks.

Moses was a free agent signing from the KHL, while Sissons is trying to work his way up the depth chart, through the organization.  Both will likely be looked to, when injuries start to happen through the season.

The Colorado Avalanche pared their roster down to 30 players and there were a couple of projected players sent down to the AHL on Wednesday: forward Joey Hishon and goaltender Calvin Pickard.

Hishon has been on the cusp of making it through to the big club's full-time roster, but obviously hasn't cracked the code quite yet.  With a couple of PTO's still in town (Curtis Glencross and Jack Skille), it isn't a great sign when he isn't cracking past them.

Pickard was locked in the battle for the back-up position in the Avalanche crease with Reto Berra, but has now lost out on the job.  Pickard was the pick of a couple magazines to win the job, so be careful of which way you go.

Another Hockey News projection for the rookie campaign was shuffled off to the AHL on Wednesday. The Florida Panthers decided that defenseman Mike Matheson is better off starting the year in the minors, instead of with the big club.  Matheson was projected for 16 points, if he was to have made the team, which would have likely slotted him to be more suited for the Waiver Draft, than the actual draft, but you just never know how it goes for some people combing through their magazines at the draft.

The Panthers also cut forward David Booth from his professional tryout contract on Wednesday.  The depth of the team didn't really allow for him to get a projection this Summer, even when he was invited, but him being released does solidify some other numbers on the list.

Afternoon Camp Demotions (Sep 28)

A couple of tryout cuts to speak of out of the Blackhawks camp, as forward Tomas Kopecky and defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky were released on Monday, possibly giving them a chance to get a shot elsewhere.  One would think that these two players would be able to give some sort of veteran leadership somewhere, but their price tag may have been a bit too high for the Blackhawks and their cap situation, if they were not already deemed unsuitable for what the team was going to do moving forward.  Tough to say.

Next up in the day was the Winnipeg Jets cuts and there were a few players with projections let go to the minors.  On top of the list, forwards Matt Fraser and Matt Halischuk, both were depth forwards, but their demotions do open up spots for some rookies, which makes the draft a little bit more interesting.

Depth on defense for the Jets was also going to be a tough roster to crack, just ask Josh Morrissey, who was among those who were sent down today, taking another rookie away from the possible pool, for the time being.  Morrissey is too old for the junior ranks, so he'll be available to the Jets, if injuries happen, so his projection of 5 points will remain.

The rookie crop gets even smaller after the demotions from the Anaheim Ducks camp on Monday afternoon, as they assigned Shea Theodore to the AHL, a part of a huge clearance of their roster, leaving 34 players to vie for spots on the opening night roster.  Theodore was projected for 26 points by the Hockey News, which would have made him into a pool worthy defenseman in the draft, so he could end up being a land mine to those who bring that guide to the draft (and not read the blog).

Theodore's demotion doesn't end his season with the Ducks, as he can be brought up on the recall, if necessary.

The San Jose Sharks have opted to send their 2015 1st round pick, forward Timo Meier, back to Halifax of the QMJHL on Monday, scratching another potential rookie from consideration in the rookie pool this year.  Meier did well to have gone this far into camp, but the depth of the Sharks forwards didn't help his cause at all.  The return of Raffi Torres from injury and the acquisition of Joel Ward likely were leading reasons why the Sharks didn't need any more young talent up front.

The Washington Capitals did a little bit of trimming of their own, including their 2014 1st round draft pick, Jakub Vrana, who was projected for 24 points by the Pooler's Guide this season.  The Capitals have had their fair share of competition for forward spots this season and Vrana just didn't make the cut with a week to go.  Derek Roy is still kicking around on a tryout at Caps camp, which likely made things far more difficult, as they try to shore up their experience for a long playoff run this year.

Click here for the updated injury/news page on the website

Pool Worthy RFAs Not Qualified

This list is going to be short, no matter how you slice it. Most players that are pool worthy, should be considered as regulars. The Vancouver Canucks did think otherwise on defenseman Yannick Weber, who was 81st among all defensemen in scoring, with 11 goals and 21 points.  He'll go to the free market, starting on Wednesday, open to sign with anyone who would care for his services.

Reports in the evening suggest that the Canucks will be trying to re-sign the 26-year old rearguard, but there is likely a chance that he'll explore the free agent market as well.

Later on, Monday evening, it was announced that the Arizona Coyotes were not going to qualify forward Mark Arcobello, who finished 184th in pool scoring among forwards, barely making the cut as pool worthy last season. He finished with 17 goals and 31 points in 77 games between Edmonton, Nashville, Pittsburgh and Arizona.  He was often on the move last season, so I would have to think that any new deal he would get would give him some stability, but who knows?

The undrafted 26-year old has made quite a few stops already, what's one more?  He would need to get on a pretty decent team for anyone to really consider him pool worthy, unless you're in a really deep draft.

Buyout Period (June 29)

From the fringe, the Buffalo Sabres placed centre Cody Hodgson on unconditional waivers for the purpose of being bought out on Monday, as his tenure with the Sabres has been far from what it should have been.  In the 2015 season, he was only good for 6 goals and 13 points in 78 games, ranking him far away from being pool worthy.

He gets a mention for possibly being considered again, as an extreme long shot.

Hodgson had four years left on his deal, each coming with a cap hit of $4.25 million.  His buyout will cost the Sabres a shade under $800,000 per season for the next eight years, but his cap hit, thanks to the War on Ice calculator, will be just over $1 million for the 2016 season.

The Nashville Predators and Viktor Stalberg are about to part ways, as the team put the player on unconditional waivers in this instance as well, with the intention of buying out the last two years of the current contract out tomorrow.

The War on Ice calculator shows that Stalberg's buyout will ding the Predators cap hit at $666,667, both in 2016 and 2017 and then up to $1.17 million in the final two years.

Stalberg only picked up 10 points in 25 games with the club last season and was no longer seen as a viable player in their lineup, especially at a $3 million cap hit.

An interesting turn of events in the buyout process, as the Los Angeles Kings opted to terminate the contract of Mike Richards after he cleared waivers on Monday morning, instead of buying him out, citing a material breach of contract.  Of course, if we don't get much injury information out of the Kings, why should we think we'd get more information about this as well.

There is a belief that this will go through the grievance process, which would explain the lack of information, but as of right now, with the way the paperwork stands, the 30-year old centre is now a free agent and the Kings don't owe him anything and only a recapture penalty would count against the cap for the team.

Sheet Player News (Nov. 25)

Box 25 forward Blake Comeau was placed on waivers on Thursday by the New York Islanders, after being a healthy scratch for a number of games in the early part of the season, only to be claimed by the Calgary Flames on Friday. Comeau has no points in 16 games for the Islanders this season, but he does have some scoring potential, which could come in handy for the Flames this season.  In the 2011 season, Comeau finished with 46 points in 77 games, which ranked him 149th in overall scoring, which is a pretty good year, but has yet to see those kind of results this season.  A change of pace in Calgary may be just what he needs to pick his game up.

With Ian White returning to the Red Wings line-up before the Thanksgiving break in the US, that closed up a possible roster spot for Box 14 defenseman Brendan Smith, who has been up filling in for the scoring veteran.  Smith was a healthy scratch on Wednesday night, White's first game back in the line-up and with Mike Commodore already hanging around the roster as the seventh defenseman, there was no need for Smith to hang around and now get any minutes.  Now that he's AHL-bound, he'll get plenty of minutes with the Grand  Rapids Griffins and will be ready to fill in when called upon.

On Friday morning, the Nashville Predators saw the passing of Niclas Bergfors through $125 waivers, which opened up the ability to release him from his contract.  Bergfors cleared regular waivers this week, in order for the Predators to send him down to the minors, but Bergfors was not pleased with this move and requested a move back to his native Sweden and the team complied with him, placing him on the next set of waivers, in order to release him.  Everything went according to plan and now the Box 8 forward is now useless on the selection sheet pool.  I do not believe he was taken at all, but if you did take him, now is a good time to trade for him.

On Thursday, the New Jersey Devils decided not to keep Box 23 forward Nick Palmieri around for the holidays, sending him down to the minors, likely for a brief stint in Albany. Palmieri has already played 19 games with the club and has 3 goals and 3 assists, so I don't think a demotion is really all about his production, which isn't stellar, but frankly, isn't all that bad.  I would expect to see Palmieri back up with the club before too long, especially with the Devils in the thick of the playoff race early on this year and Palmieri should be considered a solid option in the line-up.