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Waivers: 09/30/22

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After waivers opened yesterday, quite a few players have ended up on the wire today. Teams keep making cuts to their rosters, and any veteran player needs to clear before being assigned to the minor leagues. Here are the names on waivers today.

Dallas Stars 

Riley Barber
Ben Gleason
Tanner Kero
Jerad Rosburg
Joseph Cecconi
Rhett Gardner

Detroit Red Wings

Chase Pearson

Florida Panthers

Connor Bunnaman

New York Rangers

Andy Welinski
Tim Gettinger

Philadelphia Flyers

Isaac Ratcliffe
Linus Sandin

San Jose Sharks

C.J. Suess
Andrew Agozzino

Tampa Bay Lightning

Daniel Walcott
Darren Raddysh
Maxime Lagace
Trevor Carrick

Washington Capitals

Michael Sgarbossa
Riley Sutter
Mike Vecchione
Hunter Shepard

Carter Hart Expected To Be Ready For Season Opener

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Of all the injuries that the Philadephia Flyers are already dealing with before the year even begins, Carter Hart’s status might be the most important. The young netminder does not have a veteran backup to insulate him this season, and any hope the Flyers have of competing for the playoffs will likely come down to his performance.

It’s frightening then for Flyers fans when Hart is absent from practices or preseason games, as he has so far. Today, when meeting with the media, he explained to reporters including Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic that they are just being cautious and that he will be ready for the start of the season. The Philadelphia medical staff has deemed Hart (along with Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson) has been cleared for non-contact practice, and he was on the ice today with the group.

After bursting into the NHL with an outstanding .917 save percentage as a rookie and following it up with a strong sophomore campaign, Hart hasn’t been quite that franchise-altering netminder that the Flyers were hoping for. In 2020-21 he posted an .877 save percentage in 27 appearances, and last season he had a .905 in 45. While a good chunk of that is due to the weak play from the skaters in front of him, there should be legitimate criticism of his performance as well.

If he can get back to the goaltender that he looked like a few years ago, the Flyers have a chance of really improving on their poor 2021-22 campaign. But given that it is Felix Sandstrom and his five NHL appearances behind him, any struggles could be devastating. Being cautious is certainly warranted, though fans won’t be very trusting of the Philadelphia medical staff after the past few years.

Philadelphia Flyers Sign Artem Anisimov To PTO

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Sep 30: After showing some early signs that he might be of use to the Flyers, Anisimov is now out with a lower-body injury and is not cleared to rejoin camp. The team has not yet announced an end to his PTO, though he hasn’t skated since the first exhibition game, according to Olivia Reiner of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Sep 19: The Philadelphia Flyers released their training camp roster today and along with Antoine Roussel, whose PTO was reported yesterday, they will also be bringing Artem Anisimov to camp on a tryout contract. Nolan Maier, Pat Nagle, and Tyler Wall are the other PTOs for the Flyers, all goaltenders who will be helping fill the crease for the next few weeks.

Anisimov, 34, has a history with new Flyers head coach John Tortorella going back to when both were with the New York Rangers. The veteran forward made his name there and was a key depth piece during their Conference Finals run in 2012. Anisimov then went to the Columbus Blue Jackets (though not at the same time as Tortorella), the Chicago Blackhawks, and appeared to have finished his NHL career with the Ottawa Senators.

After playing in just 19 games with the Senators in 2020-21, Anisimov played last season back in Russia, suiting up for his hometown team in Yaroslavl. That seemed a likely place for him to continue, with his NHL saga behind him.

Not so fast, as he’ll try to show he can still compete at that level and earn an NHL contract. There was a time when Anisimov was a solid two-way center that you could rely on for 20 goals and around 40 points, though that seems like quite a while ago now. The last time he broke that 20-goal mark was in 2017-18 with the Blackhawks, and even then he had just 31 points on the year.

There’s basically no risk to bringing him to camp though, and at the very least he will help fill up the veteran minimums for preseason contests. Perhaps there’s still something left in the tank, too, after he scored 19 points in 27 games for Yaroslavl last season.

Sean Couturier Will Not Require Surgery

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It appears as though the Philadelphia Flyers have avoided the worst injury outcome (at least for now) in regards to Sean Couturier. According to Chuck Fletcher, who spoke with reporters including Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic, the veteran center will not require surgery for his recent setback but remains out on a week-to-week basis.

There was some speculation that Couturier could miss the entire season when it was announced that he was dealing with a back injury again. This essentially rules that out, though fans of the Flyers who have gone through the Ryan Ellis saga over the last year won’t be satisfied until they see the Selke winner back on the ice.

Couturier, 29, missed all but 29 games last season, which became one of the reasons why the Flyers struggled so mightily. Losing him for this season would likely have the same effect, even if John Tortorella’s new coaching staff can get the best out of the rest of the roster.

One of the most dominant two-way players in the league a few years ago, Couturier hasn’t quite been himself since winning the Selke in 2020. If he can avoid surgery and get close to that level, the team will have a legitimate star at the top of the forward group to build around.

Unfortunately, even if there is no surgery required right now, back issues aren’t something that usually go away completely. Given Couturier is only just beginning an eight-year, $62MM contract extension, which will carry a $7.75MM cap hit through 2029-30, it’s hard to know how much value the Flyers are actually going to receive.

Evening Notes: PWHPA, Hischier, Hodgson

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There’s some exciting news coming on the women’s hockey front. In an interview with The Hockey News’ Ian Kennedy, Canadian National Team captain Marie Philip-Poulin confirmed that the current touring structure for PWHPA games will turn into a league for the 2023-24 season, bringing two professional women’s leagues back into the fold for the first time since the CWHL and NWHL were both active.

The PWHPA Dream Gap Tour is the main pool of talent that Canada and the United States select for their national teams. They’ve effectively been limited to playing exhibition games without a league structure governing competition, although that shouldn’t diminish the level of talent and competition on display. A league structure should bring more financial stability and a better plan for growing the women’s game in North America.

  • New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier left the team’s in-progress preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens at the first intermission. The team reports that Hischier’s absence is simply due to cramping and that he won’t return to the game for precautionary reasons. Hischier registered a shot on goal and played 6:24 in the first period, his preseason debut.
  • Philadelphia Hockey Now’s Sam Carchidi tabs winger Hayden Hodgson as a candidate to crack the Flyers’ roster out of camp this year. Hodgson made waves in the Flyers organization this season after a breakout year in AHL Lehigh Valley, earning an NHL contract near the end of the season and a six-game call-up, where he registered three points. Hodgson hadn’t even played in the AHL since 2017-18, spending every season since then entirely in the ECHL (and partly in Slovakia).

Philadelphia Flyers Add Cal O’Reilly On PTO

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In conjunction with announcing today’s training camp cuts, Philadelphia Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher also announced that the team has added veteran forward Cal O’Reilly to camp on a professional tryout (PTO).

O’Reilly, 35, hasn’t played in the NHL since a one-game call-up to the Minnesota Wild in 2017-18. Before that, however, he spent quite a bit of time bouncing up and down between the NHL and AHL. After the Nashville Predators selected him 150th overall in the 2005 NHL Draft, he stayed in the organization through the beginning of the 2011-12 season. In Nashville, O’Reilly never managed to crack the lineup full-time but did finish his Predators career with 11 goals, 24 assists and 35 points in 85 games. Just a few weeks into the season, though, Nashville dealt O’Reilly to the then-Phoenix Coyotes for a fourth-round pick, essentially moving up one round in total value while also getting a solid, yet brief NHL stint out of O’Reilly. After just five points in 22 games, though, the Coyotes attempted to waive O’Reilly, whom the Pittsburgh Penguins claimed for the remainder of the season, where he had one assist in six games.

After playing 33 games in that busy 2011-12 season, O’Reilly would only see NHL ice again in three more seasons: 20 games with the Buffalo Sabres in 2015-16, another 11 games with the Sabres in 2016-17, and that one-game call-up in Minnesota in 2017-18. O’Reilly did remain in the Wild organization for another season after that, though, serving as the captain of the AHL’s Iowa Wild from 2017 to 2019.

O’Reilly’s technically been in the Flyers organization ever since, spending the last three seasons as a leader for the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Already signed to an AHL contract for 2022-23, O’Reilly will enter his third straight season as the Phantoms’ captain. His 53 points last season were his most since he scored 67 points in 67 games during his last season in Iowa.

With Philadelphia’s depth continuing to get hit by injuries, the Flyers will have O’Reilly in camp to evaluate if he’s still NHL call-up material at age 35. He essentially comes in (maybe just temporarily) to replace one of the team’s other PTO additions, Artem Anisimov, who currently is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

Flyers Issue Injury Updates

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  • The Philadelphia Flyers issued a few injury updates today, as reported by NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer. Per the update, both Artem Anisimov and Carter Hart are dealing with lower-body injuries, and Cam Atkinson is dealing with an upper-body ailment. All are officially day-to-day. While these injuries don’t seem likely to have any major impact on Hart or  Atkinson, an injury could pose an issue for Anisimov, who is in Flyers camp on a PTO and is battling for a roster spot.

Flyers Open Extension Talks With Travis Sanheim

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Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim is entering the final year of his contract and will be eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer.  However, GM Chuck Fletcher told reporters including Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic (Twitter link) that the goal is to re-sign the 26-year-old and discussions with his agent have already started.

Back in the 2021 offseason, Philadelphia somewhat surprisingly opted to file for club-elected arbitration with Sanheim.  That allowed the defender to choose the term had it gone to a hearing and he likely would have picked two years, permitting him to get to unrestricted free agency at 27.  It didn’t get that far as the two sides settled three days before the scheduled hearing but again, somewhat surprisingly, the Flyers agreed to give him a two-year deal with a $4.675MM AAV, putting them in the situation they are now where they’re really going to have to pay up to keep him beyond the upcoming campaign.

Sanheim is coming off arguably the best season of his five-year NHL career as he collected 31 points in 80 games last season while logging nearly 23 minutes a night.  That wasn’t his best single-season point total (that was 35 back in 2018-19) but he clearly established himself as one of their top defenders.

With Ivan Provorov ahead of him on the depth chart, Sanheim slots in as their second-pairing left defender although, with special teams time, he was still their second-most-used defender last season.  That’s an important distinction to note as while the team might want to argue that he’s not a top-pairing player based on their depth chart, Sanheim’s camp can easily claim otherwise.

Philadelphia already is one of the highest-spending teams in the league when it comes to their blueline at over $31MM this season.  While Ryan Ellis’ playing future is in doubt, things aren’t at the point where they can conclusively rule that he won’t play in 2023-24 so they can’t automatically assume he’ll be on LTIR at that time.  They already have $23.875MM in commitments to just five blueliners for that year and a new deal for Sanheim alone would push that amount over $30MM before they round out the rest of their back end.

Can they justify spending that much on their back end?  Spending upwards of 40% of the salary cap on the blueline isn’t something many teams want to do.  But at the same time, can they afford not to?  Letting Sanheim go would deal a big blow to their defense corps and considering their stated intention is to get back to being a playoff contender, losing him would make that task much more difficult.  There’s still plenty of time to work on a new deal but with most of the heavy lifting for the 2022-23 roster now done, reaching a new agreement with Sanheim should now be at the top of Fletcher’s priority list.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Ryan Ellis Not Expected To Play This Season

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There is a chance we never see Ryan Ellis on the ice at an NHL hockey game again. Philadelphia Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher met with the media today and explained to reporters including Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic that there is no timetable for Ellis’ return and that it would be a “bonus” if he played at all this season. Though he can’t say now, Fletcher explained that there is a possibility Ellis’ career is threatened by this injury, which he described as “multi-layered.”

Clarity on what Ellis’ injury actually is has been hard to come by, but Fletcher indicated today that it includes a torn psoas and issues with his hip and adductor muscle. He missed all but four games last season – the first four he had ever played outside of the Nashville Predators organization.

Acquired for Nolan Patrick (who also may not play this season) and Philippe Myers, Ellis was supposed to reshape the Flyers’ defense and give Ivan Provorov or Travis Sanheim a long-term partner. The 31-year-old is signed through the 2026-27 season and carries a $6.25MM cap hit, making him the second highest-paid defenseman on the Flyers roster.

It appears that contract will live on long-term injured reserve for a while.

Sean Couturier, meanwhile, hasn’t been ruled out for the entire season so far, though he is getting a second opinion this morning and has not been cleared to play at this point. Fletcher called it premature to speculate about his season-long outlook or even his career, despite this being his second back injury in 12 months.

Ilya Fedotov Drops Appeal In Russia, Won't Play In North America This Season

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  • Flyers goalie Ivan Fedotov has dropped his appeal on charges of evading his Russian military obligations, notes team reporter Bill Meltzer (Twitter link). The decision means that the 25-year-old will not be permitted to join Philadelphia this season.  The team will have the ability to toll the contract, meaning that they can roll over the one-year, $925K agreement to the 2023-24 season.

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