East Notes: Shaw, Despres, Darling, Witkowski

While Montreal forward Andrew Shaw was expected to miss the opening few weeks of the season as he recovers from offseason knee surgery, he revealed to reporters, including Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette, that he has received the green light from team doctors and is hopeful to play in the season opener on Wednesday.  That will present a bit of a challenge for the Canadiens who are currently carrying the maximum of 23 players on their active roster.  They have just three players exempt from waivers in defensemen Noah Juulsen and Victor Mete who both project to be in their top six, plus 2018 top pick Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who they already announced would start the season with the big club.  Accordingly, it appears that they are going to have to either waive or trade someone in the very near future to accommodate Shaw’s return to the roster.

More from the East:

• Still with the Canadiens, while it appears that Simon Despres won’t be sticking around with Montreal, he has at least earned himself a look in the minors. The team announced (Twitter link) that they have offered the 27-year-old a minor league contract; it’s worth noting that Despres is from Laval where Montreal’s AHL team plays.  However, while he has previously indicated that he’d be open to starting the season in the minors, he’s first going to take some time to consider his options.
• The Hurricanes are expected to know more about how much time goaltender Scott Darling will miss tomorrow, owner Tom Dundon told Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer (Twitter link). Dundon then added that his understanding is that the injury is “not catastrophic”.  With there being a handful of goalies among the players placed on waivers today, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Carolina add one to give themselves some extra insurance heading into the season.
• Although he cleared waivers earlier today, the Red Wings haven’t decided whether or not to send Luke Witkowski to the minors, notes Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. The veteran, who can play both up front and on defense, is being kept around given the uncertainty surrounding some of their injured players and could also be used to stack their roster as close to the Upper Limit before transferring Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen to LTIR to maximize their spending potential from doing so.