Are The Canucks Likely to Lose Anyone on Waivers?
By Jeremy Davis
8 years agoThe NHL preseason is officially underway. This is a time for youngins to show off what they learned in the summer, and for oldies to try to prove that they still have something to give. It’s also a time for a number of AHL destined skaters to show that they could be useful in a call up down the road, knowing that their chances of sticking around now are pretty much nil.
The Canucks will have a expose a number of players to waivers sometime between now and October 7th in order to get their roster size down to the required 23. Are they likely to lose any of those waiver exposed players?
First, let’s do a quick recap of the waiver rules.
Article 13.2 of the CBA states that the waiver period begins on the “12th day prior to the start of the regular season”, which would of course be yesterday, Friday September 25th. That’s why nobody was waived before then. The waiver period is now active up until the end of the hockey season.
Waivers exist so that teams are not able to stockpile excessive amounts of talent in their minor leagues. If a player with a certain amount of NHL (or eventually AHL) experience is to be reassigned to a minor league, his contract must first be offered to the rest of the league. Certain players are exempt from waivers, based on the age they signed their first NHL contract, and how many NHL games they have played.
There are several confusing intricacies to waiver exemptions. For a more comprehensive explanation, and a player by player assessment of the Canucks waiver situation, you can see an article that I wrote previously here, or one that Josh Weissbock wrote previously here. They’re both very good, although mine has a Soup Nazi meme. Just saying.
Players must remain on waivers for 24 hours (from noon to noon EST the following day). Each team has an opportunity to put in a claim. The team lowest in the standings is awarded the player. From now until November 1st, the previous year’s standings are used.
When a player is claimed, their contract must be assigned to the claiming team; the new team cannot immediately assign the player to a minor league affiliate without subjecting them once again to waivers. There is one exception to this: if team A waives a player and the player is claimed by team B, then team B waives a player and the player is re-claimed by team A, team A has 30 days to reassign that player to an affiliate (Article 13.22).
So this means that we don’t have to be worried about, say, Alex Friesen being claimed for the sole purpose of playing for some other team’s AHL affiliate.
Canucks Waiver Eligible Players
Of the players that are expected to begin the year in the AHL, six will require waivers before reporting to Utica:
- Taylor Fedun
- Alex Biega
- Adam Cracknell
- Blair Jones
- Alex Friesen
- Richard Bachman
The rest of the Comets roster will be filled out with players that don’t require waivers yet (Gaunce, Shinkaruk, Grenier, etc) or players on AHL deals (Hamilton, Bancks). Here is a full chart of Canucks contracts and their waiver eligibility.
I wrote previously on how the composition of the Comets has shifted from AHL All-Stars and inexperienced prospects to AHL supporting pieces relying heavily on the prospects to drive the team. This is already a team that has had its depth of talent noticeably reduced. Losing one or more of those players could be severely damaging to Utica’s ability to keep its head above water.
Luckily, the preseason is not a particularly risky time to be on the waiver wire.
2014 Preseason Waiver Period
Last year’s waiver period began on September 26th. Between that day and October 10th, when every team’s season had begun, there were 96 players exposed to waivers, including 7 by the Canucks (none of which were claimed). Only 4 players across the NHL were claimed during that time:
Player | Waived | Claimed |
Adam Cracknell | Kings | Blue Jackets |
Jack Skille | Islanders | Blue Jackets |
Nate Prosser | Blues | Wild |
Richard Panik | Lightning | Maple Leafs |
Nate Prosser was a funny case. He had spent his entire 4 year career with the Wild before signing as a free agent with the Blues in the off season. Before ever playing a game for St. Louis, he was waived and subsequently claimed by the same team he had left following the end of the previous season.
The poor Blue Jackets had to pick up a couple of players because they were devastated by injuries before the season even began, a trend that continued well into the year. Jack Skille was in a similar situation to Prosser, having been claimed by the same team he left the year before.
Richard Panik had trouble sticking with the Lightning, in previous years. After being claimed by Toronto, he played up and down their lineup and scored 17 points, a career high.
5 players were claimed during this period in 2013 (including the Canucks claiming Ryan Stanton), while 8 were claimed during the waiver period prior to the start of the lockout shortened season in 2013.
Other Factors
So with just 4.2% of exposed players being claimed, the risk is not particularly high. There are also a couple of factors that affect the likelihood of a claim, including teams with large amounts of injuries, and the quality of other players that will be exposed.
Injuries can often make teams take an extra hard look at the waiver wire if they don’t feel that they can fill the void in house. It’s the reason that Columbus picked up a couple of players last year. Could a team like Boston (who will be missing Dennis Seidenberg, Kevin Miller and possibly Zdeno Chara to start the year) take a close look at a Biega or a Fedun?
Another factor is the large list of other players who are available on waivers. Nearly every team is carrying some extra NHL contracts at the moment that will need to be waived at some point over the next 2 and a half weeks. Many of them are more likely to be useful at the NHL level than any of the players that the Canucks will be reassigning. Hell, four Comets from last season will hit waivers (Cal O’Reilly, Dustin Jeffrey, Bobby Sanguinetti and Brandon DeFazio), and each of them is likely at a greater risk of being claimed than the Canucks players.
Other more interesting waiver bound names include Brian O’Neill and Jordan Weal, Calder Cup winners with last season’s Manchester Monarchs. Brian O’Neill won the AHL scoring race with 80 points, while Weal wasn’t far behind with 69 points (nice), however the Los Angeles aren’t likely to have room for them.
The Red Wings will be exposing plenty of eligible players as well, including AHL vet Andy Miele (who finished 2nd in AHL scoring last year) and bubble players like Joakim Andersson or Landon Ferraro.
Calgary is an interesting example. They are currently carrying 26 NHL-ready players. Only 2 of them are waiver free: Johnny Gaudreau and Markus Granlund. I’m pretty sure Gaudreau is gonna stay, and Markus Granlund is likely to be an odd man out due to his exemption. That leaves 25 players on the Flames roster, meaning 2 of them will need to be removed. Possible waiver fodder here includes forwards Drew Shore, Joe Colborne, Paul Byron, or even former Canuck lightning rod Mason Raymond, assuming that the Flames don’t make a trade before then.
The Flames also currently have 3 goaltenders that require waivers – Joni Ortio is the most likely to be subjected to them, and he’s considerably more interesting to a team looking for goaltending than Richard Bachman.
Note: Bachman cleared waivers this morning.
Conclusion
We could still see some trades or injuries during the NHL preseason, which would change the waiver landscape, but at this point I’d be pretty surprised if any of the Canucks skaters get claimed. Defencemen Taylor Fedun and Alex Biega may be the most intriguing to other teams, as either could be useful to a team as a 7th defenceman and are relatively young.
As for the forwards (Cracknell, Jones and Friesen) and the goalie (Bachman), there are just better options available. Unless this preseason has a sudden unforeseen slew of waiver claims, it is unlikely that the supply of available players will be dipped into enough that any of the Canucks contracts are at a real risk of being lost.
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