Colorado Avalanche Place Chris Wagner On Waivers

Jan. 11: Wagner has cleared waivers and can be assigned to the Eagles, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.

Jan. 10: Chris Johnston of TSN is reporting that the Colorado Avalanche have placed forward Chris Wagner on waivers today, which would suggest that the 32-year-old is fully recovered from a ruptured Achilles and is ready to be assigned to the AHL. Wagner suffered the injury before training camp and has missed the entire season thus far. He was signed by the Avalanche in the offseason after spending the past five years in the Boston Bruins organization.

Wagner was an NHL regular from 2016-21 and dressed in 360 games during that stretch, with his best season coming in 2018-19, when he had 12 goals and seven assists in 76 games. Over the course of his nine-year NHL career, Wagner has 37 goals and 26 assists.

Wagner has played just two NHL games since 2021 and has spent the majority of the last three seasons in the AHL. He has dressed in 62 AHL games in each of the last two seasons, tallying 27 points in 2021-22 and 31 points last year.

If he is able to clear, he will likely join Colorado’s AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. While it is likely he will clear, given his recent injury situation, it is far from a sure thing as many teams are starting to deal with injury issues and could be looking for players to fill out their forward group for the rest of the season.