Thursday: Both Conacher and Di Giueseppe have cleared, but only the former will be sent down right away. The Hurricanes have decided to keep Di Giuseppe for now, likely because of their recent demotions of both Martin Necas and Haydn Fleury.
Wednesday: Another day, another set of waivers for the NHL. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes have placed Cory Conacher and Phillip Di Giuseppe on waivers respectively, after Jacob de La Rose was claimed by the Detroit Red Wings. Conacher and Di Giuseppe have both suited up already this season, but will likely be assigned to the minor leagues should they clear.
Conacher, 28, has bounced around the league several times but keeps landing in the Tampa Bay organization. A veteran of 189 games split between the Lightning, Senators, Sabres and Islanders, he played in 36 last season with the Lightning and recorded 12 points. A proficient minor league scorer, capable of producing at nearly a point-per-game pace, he unfortunately hasn’t been able to find the same success at the NHL level. Still, for any team looking for an energy player for their bottom-six, you could do worse than adding Conacher on waivers. He’s on the final year of his current deal, which is currently two-way and pays him just $650K at the NHL level.
Di Giuseppe is a different story entirely, given his status as a former top prospect. The 38th overall pick from the 2012 draft, Di Giuseppe has remained in the Carolina organization for several years but never found a ton of success at the NHL level. He did play in 49 games last season with the Hurricanes, but recorded just 13 games and couldn’t break into their top six despite some inconsistent performances from the players ahead of him. Still just 25, any claiming team would likely be doing so for his ability to play in various different spots than any hopes on him becoming a prolific scoring threat.