November 14: Komarov made his move to the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg today, announcing it via an Instagram post. Komarov expects to join SKA “soon.”
November 13: A pair of veterans are on the waiver wire today as James Mirtle of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the Kraken have placed center Riley Sheahan on waivers while the Islanders have done the same with Leo Komarov.
Sheahan signed with Seattle at the beginning of September to give them some extra depth down the middle, inking a one-year, $850K contract. However, he has had a limited role this season, logging just 11:28 per game, the lowest average of his career, while tallying just a goal and two assists in 14 games this season. With Colin Blackwell set to make his Kraken debut tonight – per The Athletic’s Ryan S. Clark (Twitter link) – it will be Sheahan that loses his roster spot. With center depth typically being something that teams covet, there is a reasonable chance that the 29-year-old could be claimed.
The same can’t be said for Komarov, who has cleared waivers several times including last month. A report surfaced earlier this week that Komarov was expected to head back overseas and join SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL and today’s placement on unconditional waivers paves the way for that move to be made official on Saturday. Assuming this is indeed the end of Komarov’s time in North America, he’ll leave with 170 points in 491 career NHL contests to go along with a whopping 1,572 hits. Once his deal is terminated, the Islanders will free up $1.875MM in cap room.
Hm. I probably would have waived Borgen instead of Sheahan. They make relatively the same salary, Sheahan has actually contributed, and it’s more likely Borgen makes it through.
With it not being my team I won’t pretend to have an informed opinion, but I wonder how interested in a “redo” the fans or ownership would be on how this team was built?