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Waivers: 10/07/22

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It’s an important day for waivers as the regular season approaches, and several potential targets are available. With the preseason wrapping up, teams will try to sneak players through at the last second and keep them in the organization for the time being.

Many of these placements are due to salary cap restrictions or LTIR machinations to give teams maximum flexibility as the season begins. Everyone from yesterday’s list cleared.

Here is today’s group of waiver additions:

Carolina Hurricanes

Jordan Martinook

Dallas Stars

Anton Khudobin

Edmonton Oilers

Mattias Janmark
Dmitri Samorukov

Minnesota Wild

Steven Fogarty

New Jersey Devils

Andreas Johnsson
Brian Pinho

Philadelphia Flyers

Kevin Connauton
Troy Grosenick

St. Louis Blues

Martin Frk
Klim Kostin
Matthew Highmore

Vancouver Canucks

Justin Dowling

Winnipeg Jets

Johnathan Kovacevic

Jake Virtanen Released From PTO

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The Edmonton Oilers have released Jake Virtanen from his professional tryout contract, according to Darren Dreger of TSN.

Now 26, Virtanen hasn’t played in the NHL since being put on leave by the Vancouver Canucks in 2021 after allegations of sexual assault were raised. He was eventually bought out by the team in the offseason and spent 2021-22 in the KHL, scoring nine goals and 16 points in 36 games.

After being found not guilty earlier this summer, Virtanen is attempting an NHL comeback, but he’ll have to do it somewhere other than Edmonton now that his PTO has been terminated. The sixth-overall pick from 2014 is a free agent again and it is unclear what kind of other opportunities await him in North America.

While a year away from the league certainly didn’t help things, Virtanen was already struggling to keep a spot in an NHL lineup. In 2020-21 he had just five goals in 38 games (zero assists) and has never been a consistent offensive threat.

His size and skating ability suggest he could be an effective player, but there have been too many games where his presence has been absent. To change that perception and keep his career afloat, he may have to work his way back up from the minor leagues, especially given how close it is to the regular season without a contract in hand.

Waivers: 10/06/22

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Another day, another set of players on waivers as the regular season approaches. Everyone from yesterday cleared, while today’s group looks like this:

Boston Bruins

Vinni Lettieri
Joona Koppanen
Dan Renouf
Keith Kinkaid

Colorado Avalanche

Jayson Megna

Edmonton Oilers

Calvin Pickard
Slater Koekkoek

Los Angeles Kings

Lias Andersson

New York Rangers

Jonny Brodzinski

Edmonton Oilers Hire Steve Staios

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The Edmonton Oilers have nabbed one of junior hockey’s most successful executives, hiring former NHL defenseman Steve Staios as a special advisor to the hockey operations staff. Staios will report to general manager Ken Holland and work closely with the team’s prospects.

Notably, the announcement also ends Staios’ time with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL, a team he led to the league championship earlier this year. He joined the Bulldogs in 2016 after spending several years in the Toronto Maple Leafs player development department, a role that followed his long playing career.

That playing career included parts of eight seasons in Edmonton, where he played 573 regular season games for the Oilers, more than half of his career total. The physical defenseman racked up 743 penalty minutes and 146 points during those games and wore an “A” as alternate captain at times. In 2011-12, Staios eclipsed the 1,000-game mark for his career while playing in his final season with the New York Islanders, before retiring at the age of 38.

As general manager and president of the Bulldogs, he twice took home the OHL Championship, while also winning the GM of the Year award this past season. Many of the top contributors to the recent Hamilton squad were undrafted talents that were helped along and put in prime positions for success, something that the Oilers could certainly use some of as they continue to try and surround Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl with depth.

If Staios can help set up a pipeline of junior talent to the Oilers, his presence will certainly be worth it.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Could Holloway Push Out Puljujarvi; Benson's Injury Could Hurt Edmonton's Cap

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The presence of Dylan Holloway is what ultimately might be the final push for the Oilers to part ways with Jesse Puljujarvi, suggests Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (subscription link).  However, when that happens remains to be seen.  Nugent-Bowman notes that Edmonton isn’t interested in a futures-based return for Puljujarvi which doesn’t help an already-thin trade market since a lot of teams can’t take on his $3MM AAV.  However, while moving Puljujarvi would free up some needed cap space, they’d be taking a risk with promoting Holloway into a prominent role considering he has basically half a pro season under his belt with their AHL affiliate.  Long-term, they should take comfort that Holloway could fill Puljujarvi’s spot but it might be a case of later rather than sooner that the youngster pushes Puljujarvi out.

  • Still with the Oilers, they’ll be without winger Tyler Benson for a little while with the team not sure how much time he’ll miss, notes Daily Faceoff’s Jason Gregor (Twitter link). On its own, a player on the fringes of the roster missing time isn’t typically notable in itself but as PuckPedia points out (Twitter link), Benson was on Edmonton’s roster long enough last season to have his cap hit count in full instead of being prorated through season-opening IR.  With cap space at a premium for Edmonton, having Benson count in full to start the year if he’s only going to miss a couple of weeks certainly won’t help things.

Kailer Yamamoto "Banged Up"; Tyler Benson Out "Longer"

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  • There’s some good news and bad news on the injury front for the Edmonton Oilers. TSN’s Jason Gregor reports that winger Kailer Yamamoto is banged up, but that his injury is nothing serious and he could be ready for the team’s final preseason game on Friday. However, winger Tyler Benson isn’t so lucky, as Gregor reports he’ll be out “longer” and the team will know more in the coming days. Benson was a candidate to find a spot in the team’s bottom-six out of camp.

Oilers Not Among The Teams Discussing Jakob Chychrun

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  • The Oilers are not believed to be among the teams that are involved in trade talks with Arizona regarding defenseman Jakob Chychrun, reports Sportsnet’s Mark Spector (Twitter link). He notes that top prospects Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg are off the table in discussions which would certainly limit the top young assets that the Coyotes will be seeking.  As a team with very limited cap space, Edmonton would also likely need to send salary out that matches or exceeds Chychrun’s $4.6MM AAV which also wouldn’t be appealing to Arizona.

Waivers: 10/1/22

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October 2nd: Per CapFriendly, all players placed on waivers yesterday, October 1st, have cleared (link).

October 1st: It’s expected to be another busy day on the waiver wire today as teams continue to trim down their rosters.  We’ll keep track of the players being placed on waivers here.

Edmonton

F Seth Griffith

Montreal

F Nate Schnarr

NY Rangers

G Louis Domingue

St. Louis

D Steven Santini
F Nathan Todd
D/F Luke Witkowski

Tampa Bay

D Sean Day

Vegas

F Byron Froese
G Michael Hutchinson
D Brayden Pachal
F Sheldon Rempal

Winnipeg

F Michael Eyssimont
D Leon Gawanke
F Jeff Malott
D Ashton Sautner

All 22 players that were on waivers yesterday cleared.

Edmonton Oilers Sign Max Wanner

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The Edmonton Oilers have rewarded a young defenseman after a strong camp, even though he’s headed back to junior hockey. The team has announced a three-year, entry-level contract for Max Wanner who was sent back to the Moose Jaw Warriors earlier this week.

Wanner, 19, was one of the last few picks of the 2021 draft, selected 212th overall. He made his preseason debut on Monday, and now goes back to the WHL with an NHL contract in hand. Standing 6’3″, Wanner has a blend of size and skating ability that should make him a dominant presence for the Warriors this year, even if he does still have some work to do before making an impact at the professional level.

Because of his age, Wanner’s contract will slide forward this year, meaning it extends through 2025-26. He won’t be eligible to play in the AHL until his season is over but can join the Bakersfield Condors in 2023-24. Not every seventh-round pick earns a contract, meaning the young defenseman is already ahead of projections. If he can continue to develop, perhaps the Oilers have found a bit of value at the end of the draft.

Oilers Issue Injury Updates On Desharnais, Lavoie, and Savoie

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  • Edmonton Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft issued a few injury updates today. Per Woodcroft, as covered by The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman, defenseman Vincent Desharnais sustained a “minor injury,” winger Carter Savoie was injured during the team’s prospect tournament and is “out long-term,” and prospect forward Raphael Lavoie “won’t participate” in training camp after finishing last season injured. These updates do have implications for the Oilers’ roster, as Desharnais was expected to compete for a depth role on the team’s blueline, and Lavoie was seemingly entering a do-or-die training camp battle to impress Oilers brass after two straight up-and-down seasons at the AHL level.

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