Monday: All three players have cleared waivers and can be assigned to the minor leagues.
Sunday: The Los Angeles Kings have come to the same decision that the Montreal Canadiens made earlier this season, and have placed young forward Nikita Scherbak on waivers. He’ll be joined by Jordan Schmaltz of the St. Louis Blues and Chris Wideman of the Florida Panthers according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Scherbak was claimed by the Kings in an attempt to add some more speed and youth to their lineup in a hope that it would create more offense, but the 23-year old winger failed to do so through his eight games in Los Angeles. Scoring just a single goal, Scherbak struggled to adjust to his new team and will now be available for the entire league once again. If he clears, Los Angeles would be able to send Scherbak to the Ontario Reign and keep him in the organization.
St. Louis too is hoping to sneak Schmaltz through and send him to the minor leagues, given the fact that he hasn’t played in an NHL game since December 14th. The 25-year old defenseman just can’t seem to crack the Blues lineup on a full-time basis, playing in 20 games this season but earning an average of just 11:29 minutes of ice time. Schmaltz was a first-round pick of the Blues in 2012, but has just five points in 42 NHL games and could very well be on his way to another organization to get a fresh start.
Wideman, meanwhile has seemed to get a fresh start every few days this season. After being involved in the infamous Ottawa Senators Uber video earlier this year, he was eventually traded to the Edmonton Oilers in late November. After just five games as an Oiler, the team decided to ship him out to Florida as part of the package that acquired Alex Petrovic. Wideman made his Florida debut last night recording two shots in just under 12 minutes of ice time, but apparently did not do enough to impress Bob Boughner’s coaching staff. If assigned to the minor leagues, Wideman’s entire $1MM salary would be buried and not count towards the cap for the Panthers.
I don’t understand why the Blues coaches have persisted to play Bouwmeester, Bortuzzo, and Gunnarsson but refuse to play Schmaltz. Bouwmeester looks a few steps slower than he did two seasons ago and just isn’t making all the same crisp plays/decisions. Bortuzzo is a solid option as your 6th/7th D and Gunnarsson is a decent top 6 as well but he has been hurt and they still wouldn’t play Schmaltz for whatever reason. Schmaltz makes some poor decisions as well, but when they won’t play him to let him get more comfortable working with another defensemen and learning the quirks of certain players how is he supposed to get better? I would love to see the Blues keep him, but I feel it would be for the best for Jordan if he went else where and was given a chance to grow as a player rather than stagnate up in the box.
I agree a lot of this has been done under Armstrong with youth and I feel this stunts their growth when they are benched often. When they call someone up you have to okay them I almost thought they were going to mishandle Thomas, and at least Kyrou is getting to play. I am hoping for some moves to clear the way for the youth and speed. Kostin has a good showing at Juniors. This year is now a bust unless a miracle happens. Might as well develop our youth now and get ready for next year
I agree with the two posts above. Granted we’re just fans and know less than the coaches/front office, but it seems crazy to me how so many young players get tossed aside and labeled as busts/failures when they’re usually not getting significant playing time. I feel like coaches are expecting these young players to be a point-per-game player or a lockdown defender in limited minutes and a limited role.