Before tomorrow night’s game against the Edmonton Oilers, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced they have sent down forward Waltteri Merela to their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Merela will not need to clear waivers for the assignment.
Last season, Merela was rostered on the Tampereen Tappara of the SM-liiga in Finland, where he would score 15 goals and 18 assists in 41 regular season games. Tappara was far and away the most dominant team in Finland last year, carrying that into the playoffs, where they would secure their league-best 12th championship with a 12-2 playoff record.
Merela was a big factor in the team’s continued success into the playoffs, scoring eight goals and six assists in those 14 games. This past summer, on June 5th, Merela finally made his way to North America, signing a one-year, $870K contract with the Lightning as an undrafted free agent.
Unfortunately, his transition to North American hockey has not been a smooth one, as Merela has yet to score a point in 14 games played. Averaging just over 10 and a half minutes on the team’s bottom forward group, Merela became more of a defensive cog than an offensive one.
Nevertheless, Merela will attempt to reacquire his offensive spark in the American Hockey League for an above-average Crunch team. Through 12 games this season, Syracuse holds a 7-3-2 record, good for second place in the league’s North Division.