Jan 5: Both players have cleared waivers, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. Rask is expected to be assigned to the taxi squad, where the Wild will receive $1.125MM in cap relief. McIntyre will be assigned to the Iowa Wild.
Jan 4: Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Minnesota Wild placed forward Victor Rask and goalie Zane McIntyre on waivers today.
While McIntyre wasn’t in the Wild organization prior to today, the waiver placement means that he signed an NHL contract with the Wild today. He was previously with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners on an AHL contract, appearing in three games and posting a .904 save percentage to go with a 2-1-0 record.
McIntyre has spent time on NHL rosters over the past few years but hasn’t gotten into a game since he played eight with the Boston Bruins in 2016-17. Those are the only eight NHL games he has under his belt, but he’s been a capable enough AHL man over the years and that’s the role he’ll play in Minnesota.
Rask’s waiver placement is partially salary-motivated, as the 28-year-old forward is in the last year of a contract that carries a $4MM cap hit. If he clears waivers, the Wild can save roughly $1MM on that hit while he’s in the minors.
He has four goals and six assists in 21 games this season, occasionally serving as a healthy scratch.
I know Rask hasn’t lived up to his contract, but I don’t understand why he gets so much flak. His shooting % is really good, he has a great +/- and the Wild needed a center a lot worse than a winger in Nino.
To play such limited minutes I’d say those are solid numbers.
I would like to see the Wild try and swing a deal for Dvorak or Poehling and see if they’d add some value to that center position.
Canes won that trade by a mile.
Yeah, he’s been hit (playing with KK) or miss (rest of the time); now with Kirill out for some indefinite period, he doesn’t really have a good spot. Kind of late to ‘rediscover’ his game in the AHL, but I guess you never know, sometimes when the end is coming up on you in the rearview, you manage to find a little more gas…..