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Senators Place Zack MacEwen On Waivers

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The Ottawa Senators are waiving forward Zack MacEwen today for the purpose of assignment to AHL Belleville, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.

This is certainly not the start MacEwen, 27, envisioned for himself in Canada’s capital after signing a three-year, league-minimum salary deal this summer. Offering long-term deals to enforcers nearly always results in a waiver placement over the life of the deal, but rarely does it come just two games into that player’s tenure with the team.

An undrafted free agent, MacEwen got his NHL start with the Canucks, who signed him to an entry-level contract in 2017. He may be solely in the NHL as an enforcer, but he did flash decent offensive promise early on in the minors and got his first look with Vancouver the following season.

Since then, he’s scored 13 goals, 16 assists, 29 points, and added 245 penalty minutes in 188 NHL contests between Vancouver, the Flyers, Kings, and Senators. His last AHL appearance came when the Flyers waived him at the beginning of last season, and he potted three points in two contests with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms before the Flyers brought him up for the rest of the season.

MacEwen has one assist in two contests with Ottawa, as he was banged up for the team’s season opener and was a healthy scratch in last night’s decisive 6-1 win over the Capitals. While defenseman Artem Zub sustained an injury that’s not expected to keep him out long-term, he may still miss time, and assigning MacEwen to Belleville would free up the cap space to recall a defenseman in his stead.

Penguins Place Jansen Harkins On Waivers

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have placed forward Jansen Harkins on waivers for the purpose of assignment to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.

This could end an extremely short stint in Pittsburgh for the 26-year-old. He began training camp as a member of the Winnipeg Jets, who waived him at the beginning of the month, and Pittsburgh snapped him up off waivers. Just over two weeks later, he finds himself on the wire again.

Harkins had averaged just 9:28 per game through four contests with Pittsburgh despite playing a third-line role with Lars Eller and Drew O’Connor, but Eller is the only player out of that trio who had managed to get on the scoresheet – just one assist. In fact, Eller is the only member of the Penguins’ bottom six to register a point this season. The entire fourth line remains scoreless through four contests.

The North Vancouver native had just five points in 22 games with Winnipeg last season but quite impressive numbers in the minors. With the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, Harkins notched 50 points in 44 games, his second time breaking the point-per-game plane in the AHL.

Manitoba is where he could continue his season if the Jets attempt to reclaim him on waivers and are the only team to do so. In that case, Winnipeg could send him directly to the minors without risking his rights on waivers again. If any other team puts in a claim, he will need waivers to head to the minors.

Sharks No Longer Expected To Waive Kevin Labanc

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12:02 p.m.: Seravalli has backtracked his initial report, saying that the Sharks did inform Labanc’s camp this morning that he’d be placed on waivers but have now “reversed course.” Labanc is expected to make his season debut Thursday against Boston. Sharks general manager Mike Grier also contradicted Seravalli’s report, saying the team never planned on waiving him.

11:33 a.m.: Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports the Sharks will place winger Kevin Labanc on waivers today at 1 p.m. CT for the purposes of assignment to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.

Labanc, a sixth-round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, quickly looked like a steal after exploding for back-to-back 100-plus point seasons in the OHL after his draft year. The transition to pro hockey was rather smooth, posting a point per game with the Barracuda in 2016-17 and potting 20 points in 55 games with the Sharks during his rookie season. His scoring would increase year-by-year until his peak in the 2018-19 campaign when he notched a career-high 17 goals and 56 points in 82 contests and played a key secondary scoring role in guiding the Sharks to the Western Conference Final, where they would fall to the eventual champion St. Louis Blues.

He was an RFA at the end of that season, but cap constraints forced him into taking just a one-year, $1MM contract to remain in San Jose. His value would, unfortunately, fall off a cliff in 2019-20, when he dropped to 33 points in 70 contests and posted an eye-opening -33 rating, but that didn’t stop then-Sharks GM Doug Wilson from signing him to a four-year, $4.725MM cap hit deal to remain in San Jose.

Over the life of that contract, he’s scored 30 goals and 67 points in 148 games while seeing his average ice time slip to third-line minutes. He was a healthy scratch at times near the end of last season after he put up 33 points in 72 games, and he has not played yet in 2023-24 after serving as a healthy scratch for the team’s first three contests.

With one season remaining on his deal, it’s extremely unlikely anyone will take a flyer on Labanc at such a rich cap hit. The Sharks will be able to bury $1.15MM of his $4.725MM hit in the minors, resulting in a cap charge of $3.575MM if he’s assigned to the Barracuda.

Devils Place Keith Kinkaid On Waivers

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Oct. 18: Kinkaid has cleared waivers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. Per Elite Prospects’ roster log, Kinkaid will be loaned outside of the organization to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, where he’s expected to assume a starting role.

Oct. 17: The New Jersey Devils placed netminder Keith Kinkaid on waivers today, per Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.

Kinkaid, 34, was signed by the Devils this offseason to fill a depth role but sustained an upper-body injury during camp that prevented him from hitting waivers before the season started. Now healthy, the Devils can involve him in a transaction and attempt to send him to the AHL’s Utica Comets.

The Devils needed a second netminder for Utica when 22-year-old Nico Daws had to undergo hip surgery this summer, which will likely keep him out of commission until mid-December. For the time being, Utica will go with a veteran tandem of Kinkaid and former Maple Leaf Erik Källgren in the crease.

Kinkaid’s days of being an everyday NHLer are certainly behind him, but Devils fans will remember his play as a fill-in for the oft-injured Cory Schneider in the late 2010s. Kinkaid’s best campaign came during the 2017-18 season, starting a career-high 38 games and posting a 26-10-3 record and .913 save percentage to help lead the Devils to their first playoff berth since losing to the Kings in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final.

Since then, however, he’s primarily served as a third-string option for organizations such as the Canadiens, Rangers, Bruins and Avalanche. He hasn’t made double-digit NHL appearances in a single season since his last year with the Devils in 2018-19. In one contest with the Bruins and one with the Avalanche in 2022-23, Kinkaid recorded a lone win and a .950 save percentage in 88 minutes of play, stopping 38 of 40 shots faced.

Blue Jackets Activate Mathieu Olivier, Eric Robinson Clears Waivers

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10/15/23 1:00 PM: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Robinson has cleared waivers, and The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports that the Blue Jackets will be sending Robinson to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.

10/14/23 1:02 PM: With winger Mathieu Olivier expected to come off injured reserve tonight, the Blue Jackets needed to open up a roster spot.  That spot is being vacated by winger Eric Robinson as the team announced that Robinson has been placed on waivers.  He has been designated as waivers/non-roster, opening up the spot immediately even though he’ll be on waivers until 1 PM CT on Sunday.

Olivier missed the season opener for Columbus due to a leg injury and with an IR placement being able to be back-dated, they were able to stash him on there even though he winds up missing less than a week of action.  The 26-year-old played in a career-best 66 games last season for the Blue Jackets, picking up five goals and ten assists along with 81 penalty minutes and 178 hits while logging 11:38 per night.  That was enough to earn him a two-year, $2.2MM deal back in June, one that bought out his final season of RFA eligibility while giving them an extra year of club control.

As for Robinson, he has done well in a slightly elevated role the last couple of years, putting up a career-high 27 points in 2021-22 while following that up with 24 points and a career-best 12 goals last season despite averaging less than 14 minutes per night in each year.  On the surface, it would seem like someone with that production might be a candidate to be claimed.  However, the 28-year-old has a $1.6MM cap charge this season and with so many teams tight to the cap, there’s a good chance he’ll go through unclaimed.  If that happens, Columbus can clear a pro-rated $1.15MM of his contract by sending Robinson to the minors.

Columbus could have elected to send one of their five waiver-exempt players down with the logical candidate being David Jiricek who was just recalled yesterday.  However, with the Blue Jackets down to just seven defenders including Jiricek, they decided that waiving Robinson was the safest route to take to get Olivier back into the lineup.

Markus Niemeläinen Clears Waivers

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Saturday: Niemeläinen has cleared waivers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.  He has been assigned to Bakersfield.

Friday: The Edmonton Oilers announced they’ve placed defenseman Markus Niemeläinen on waivers. With Niemeläinen now cleared to play and eligible for waivers and a subsequent AHL assignment to the Bakersfield Condors, the team will add a forward before tomorrow’s home opener against the Vancouver Canucks, says The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman.

It seems unlikely Niemeläinen will be claimed by another team over the next 24 hours, given he has just one assist in 43 NHL games to date. The 25-year-old Finn is strictly a shutdown defender, and he hasn’t managed to post positive possession numbers despite playing extremely sheltered minutes. His 6-foot-6 frame may be appealing to some teams, though.

He’d been dealing with a short-term undisclosed injury which prevented the Oilers from waiving him before the season started and, in part, forced them to play with 17 skaters due to salary cap constraints in Wednesday’s 8-1 road drubbing at the hands of the Canucks.

Niemeläinen is in the final season of a two-year, $1.525MM contract. While it carries a cap hit of just $762.5K, below the league minimum for this season, he is making the minimum $775K in actual salary this season at both the NHL and AHL levels. In 30 games with AHL Bakersfield last season, Niemeläinen notched two goals, five assists and seven points in 30 contests. Edmonton selected him in the third round, 63rd overall, of the 2016 NHL Draft.

Blues Place André Heim On Unconditional Waivers

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The St. Louis Blues placed forward André Heim on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination Wednesday, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Heim, 25, was on assignment to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds after the Blues cut him from their training camp roster on September 29. The Blues signed Heim to a one-year, entry-level contract worth $950K in May after the 6-foot-2 center notched 12 goals, 19 assists and 31 points in 42 games for Ambrì-Piotta in the Swiss National League.

The Blues were facing a bit of a roster crunch in Springfield after their affiliate accepted two players on loan from the Carolina Hurricanes, who are without an AHL affiliate in 2023-24. Alongside bringing in defenseman Dylan Coghlan, the Thunderbirds also received 22-year-old center prospect Jamieson Rees. Rees notched 14 goals and 42 points in 65 contests for the Chicago Wolves last season and creates competition in the Springfield top-nine, leading to less opportunity for the older Heim.

After failing to crack the NHL roster, it’s fair to assume Heim, who’s played in his native Switzerland for his entire hockey career, would prefer to return home rather than fight for ice time in the minors. He could very well return to Ambrì-Piotta, where he served as a member of their leadership team last season. If not there, another team in the NL is likely.

Waivers: 10/10/23

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Oct. 11, 1:03 p.m.: All three players have cleared waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Oct. 10, 1:45 p.m.: Although not as busy as the past few days, there’s still some activity on the waiver wire today. The lone player on waivers yesterday, New York Islanders forward Ross Johnston, was claimed today by the Anaheim Ducks.

Los Angeles Kings

G David Rittich

Tampa Bay Lightning

F Alex Barré-Boulet

Toronto Maple Leafs

F Bobby McMann

The most notable name here is Rittich, a 31-year-old Czech netminder who has 172 games of NHL experience. Though the number of clubs rostering three goalies to start the season might point to a heightened risk of goaltenders getting claimed off of waivers, the fact that Martin Jones, who played in 48 games last season, cleared waivers does bode well for the Kings’ likelihood of passing Rittich through.

Rittich is playing on a one-year, $875k contract and is set to be the Kings’ third goalie behind Pheonix Copley and Cam Talbot. Last season, Rittich was Connor Hellebuyck’s backup and went 9-8-1 with a .901 save percentage and 2.67 goals against average.

Gone are the days when Rittich was a borderline starter-level netminder as he was with the Calgary Flames, and although public expected goals models were down on his work last season, there could be NHL teams in need of goalies who believe he still has something to offer at the game’s highest level.

Barré-Boulet, 26, is an undersized, undrafted former QMJHL star who has become a top player in the AHL for the Syracuse Crunch. He made the AHL’s First All-Star team last season after scoring 84 points last season, by far a team lead, but so far hasn’t been able to translate that success to the NHL level.

The final player on the waiver wire today is McMann, an undrafted forward from the Maple Leafs. The Colgate University product worked his way up from the ECHL to the NHL and was impressive at the AHL level last season, scoring 21 goals in just 30 games.

The energetic winger isn’t exactly the prototypical player that gets claimed off of waivers but perhaps there is a team is intrigued enough by his minor-league goal-scoring and endearing style to put in a claim.

Senators Re-Claim Lassi Thomson Off Waivers From Ducks

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3:25 p.m.: No other team put in a claim for Thomson, and he has been reassigned to AHL Belleville, according to a team announcement.

1:09 p.m.: The Ottawa Senators have re-claimed defenseman Lassi Thomson off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks today after losing him on the waiver wire just days ago, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. If the Senators were the only team to put in a claim for Thomson over the past 24 hours, they can assign him directly to AHL Belleville without having to waive him again.

If Ottawa cannot immediately assign Thomson to Belleville, that will put them in quite the pickle. They need clarity within the next two hours, as claiming Thomson puts them over the salary cap Upper Limit by approximately $800K. They don’t have room for any healthy extras with center Joshua Norris on injured reserve to start the season. Thomson requiring waivers to go to the AHL again would require Ottawa to paper down one of two waiver-exempt players on their opening night roster – center Ridly Greig or defenseman Jake Sanderson – to submit a cap-compliant roster.

Ottawa selected Thomson, 23, with the 19th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. He spent most of the 2022-23 season in the minors but did receive a two-game call-up with Ottawa, scoring a combined seven goals and 33 points in 58 contests across the two levels. The right-shot defenseman failed to overtake veteran Travis Hamonic for a regular roster spot during Senators training camp this year and, if he ends up back in AHL Bellville, will play leading minutes there once again.

Waivers: 10/08/23

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Oct. 9: Four players on this list were claimed today: A.J. Greer (Calgary), John Ludvig (Pittsburgh), Ivan Prosvetov (Colorado), and Lassi Thomson (Ottawa). All others have cleared and are expected to be assigned to their team’s respective AHL affiliates, aside from Boyd, who PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reports remains on the Coyotes’ active roster for now.

Oct. 8: It’s expected to be a busy day on the waiver wire, as NHL teams are making their final adjustments to the roster they’ll bring into the start of the 2023-24 season. There have already been numerous notable names exposed to the waiver wire thus far this preseason, and that list could only expand today. All players from yesterday’s waiver wire have cleared.

Anaheim Ducks

D Lassi Thomson
G Alex Stalock
F Andrew Agozzino

Boston Bruins

F Patrick Brown
F A.J. Greer

Arizona Coyotes

F Travis Boyd
F Zach Sanford
G Ivan Prosvetov

Carolina Hurricanes

D Dylan Coghlan

Chicago Blackhawks

F Joey Anderson

Colorado Avalanche

F Riley Tufte

Dallas Stars

F Riley Damiani

Detroit Red Wings

F Zach Aston-Reese

Edmonton Oilers

F Raphael Lavoie
F Lane Pederson
D Ben Gleason

Florida Panthers

F Zac Dalpe
D John Ludvig
D Casey Fitzgerald

Los Angeles Kings

F Jaret Anderson-Dolan

Montreal Canadiens

F Joel Armia
D Gustav Lindström

Ottawa Senators

F Bokondji Imama

Pittsburgh Penguins

G Magnus Hellberg
F Colin White
D Mark Friedman
F Vinnie Hinostroza
F Radim Zohorna

St. Louis Blues
F Mackenzie MacEachern
D Calle Rosen
G Malcolm Subban
F Nathan Walker

Tampa Bay Lightning

D Zach Bogosian
F Gabriel Fortier

Toronto Maple Leafs

G Martin Jones
F Kyle Clifford
F Dylan Gambrell
D William Lagesson
D Maxime Lajoie

Vancouver Canucks

F Jack Studnicka
D Christian Wolanin

Vegas Golden Knights

F Grigori Denisenko

Winnipeg Jets

D Kyle Capobianco
G Collin Delia
F Axel Jonsson-Fjallby

The big surprise here out of Arizona regards Boyd. The versatile 30-year-old veteran doesn’t have an exorbitant contract (just $1.75MM through the end of the season) and has scored 69 points across the last two seasons.

He’s been something of a breakout player for the Coyotes as his 17-goal, 35-point 2022-23 was far and away his best season in his career, so it’s definitely a surprise to see him exposed on waivers.

For Anaheim, the move to waive Stalock likely means that Lukáš Dostál has won the Ducks’ backup goalie job behind John Gibson, as should Stalock clear the Ducks will have the option to send him down to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls.

In Edmonton, it comes as a little bit of a surprise to see Lavioe waived. The 23-year-old power forward was drafted just outside of the 2019 first round, and took a real step forward in his development last season. He became a genuinely impactful AHLer, scoring 25 goals and 45 points. He’s a name to watch in terms of players with the potential to be claimed out of this group.

Anderson-Dolan finally made the NHL on an extended basis last season, and scored 12 points in 46 games. He even got some playoff action under his belt, but seeing as he was a near-point-per-game scorer in his last season in the AHL, it seems the Kings could prefer to have him start the season with the AHL’s Ontario Reign.

Rosen appears the likeliest candidate from the Blues’ group of waived players to be of interest to other teams, as he’s owed just a $762.5k cap hit this season and impressed in 49 games of NHL action last season. He scored 18 points in that span and could interest teams in need of some additional defensive help.

Out of Tampa is Bogosian, and it’s reported that the Lightning are hoping to put the veteran blueliner in a position to land on another team where he can play a bigger role than he’d be offered in Tampa. The 33-year-old won a Stanley Cup for the Lightning and it seems that the organization is looking to do right by the player while also turning to other options to staff their defense.

One of the biggest names on waivers comes out of Toronto, as Jones played in 48 games last season but now finds himself exposed to 31 other clubs. With an $875k cap hit, the veteran netminder could end up claimed by teams in need of instant goaltending support, such as the Lightning who don’t have much depth after the injury to superstar Andrei Vasilevskiy.

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