Oct. 24: Sheary has cleared waivers, per Friedman. He can now be assigned to Syracuse at will, something Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times reports will happen in short order.
Oct. 23: The Lightning have placed winger Conor Sheary on waivers for the purpose of assignment to AHL Syracuse, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Sheary’s time in Tampa hasn’t gone to plan since inking a three-year, $6MM contract in free agency in 2023. He missed significant time in the first half of last season with an upper-body injury and wasn’t the same after coming back, serving as a healthy scratch on several occasions later on. His four goals in 57 games were his lowest ever in a season, and his 15 points were undermined only by his 10 in 44 games with the Penguins in his rookie season in 2015-16.
Fast forward to the beginning of this season, and little has changed for the 32-year-old. He was a healthy scratch for the Lightning’s first game and has only played every other contest, going without a point and recording a -2 rating in third-line minutes alongside Michael Eyssimont and Conor Geekie. Possession quality has become an issue for the veteran, who controlled a career-low 43.5% of expected goals at even strength last season.
Sheary will likely clear waivers given the money and term left on his deal. If so, and assuming he reports to Syracuse, it will mark his first AHL action since he was part of the Penguins organization nine years ago. The preference on both sides would likely be to find a trade for Sheary, which he’d likely need to waive his 16-team no-trade list to make happen.
The Lightning can reduce Sheary’s cap hit from $2MM to $850K by stashing him in the minors.
Conor Sheary being sent down to the AHL in Syracuse is a clear sign his time in Tampa is coming to an end more than likely. While being sent down to the AHL for “assignment” is typically for a player to work on his skills & rediscover himself.
GM BriseBois was in Pittsburgh this past weekend for the Penguins/Jets game which has created much speculation that BriseBois is setting up for a potential trade of some sorts with the Penguins (not the Jets).
This move of Sheary to the AHL also creates cap space. Granted, one would assume Sheary would be part of a deal in a trade. I guess only time will tell but I do strongly suspect Sheary will get traded at some point this season for sure as the marriage of Sheary & TBL just isn’t clicking.
Not a good day for our 2017 Alumni team.
Columbus would make sense for a waiver claim
Not for $2m per for this season and next
$2M won’t break the Jackets this year or next. So it does make sense for them.
Interesting move. He’s been disappointing since joining the Lightning and the 3/4 lines last year really struggled to do anything well. I think a total makeover was in JBBs mind even in the offseason but maybe couldn’t put together something quick enough before the season started.