Large Group Of Players Placed On Waivers
With just a few days before the start of the regular season, a huge number of players have been placed on waivers. The full list includes:
Anaheim Ducks:
Anthony Stolarz
Andy Welinski
Christian Djoos
Andrew Poturalski
Chase De Leo
Vinni Lettieri
Sam Carrick
Andrew Agozzino
David Backes
Carolina Hurricanes:
Antoine Bibeau
Steven Lorentz
Spencer Smallman
Jeremy Bracco
Gustav Forsling
Drew Shore
Max McCormick
Colorado Avalanche:
Jacob MacDonald
Dan Renouf
Kyle Burroughs
Mike Vecchione
T.J. Tynan
Miikka Salomaki
Jayson Megna
Sheldon Dries
Toronto Maple Leafs:
These massive waiver placements are no different than the normal training camp cuts that would occur in late-September in a normal year. Should they clear, these players will be eligible to report to the taxi squad or AHL. There are a few names that stand out from the crowd though.
Backes, a veteran of 950 NHL games, still carries a $6MM cap hit on the final season of the five-year, $30MM contract he signed with the Boston Bruins in 2016. As Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports, this is not a move by the Ducks to try and rid themselves of Backes, but create some additional flexibility. At any rate, his contract basically makes him waiver-proof as no other team would want to take it on at this point in the season.
Bracco, a former top prospect that scored 79 points in 75 games for the Toronto Marlies of the AHL as recently as 2018-19, has seen his development stall and finds himself on the outside looking in for the Hurricanes once again. Djoos, once an up-and-coming defenseman in the Washington Capitals system, is now 26 and available to the whole league, should they want to take a chance.
Ducks Sign Three Players
Overnight and early this morning, the Ducks have been busy adding some depth. TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports (Twitter link) that they’ve signed defenseman Andy Welinski while PuckPedia adds (Twitter links) that they’ve also inked center Vinni Lettieri to a one-year pact and re-signed center Andrew Poturalski to a one-year pact.
Welinski returns to an organization that he has plenty of familiarity with having spent parts of four seasons with Anaheim in their system before signing with the Flyers as a free agent last summer. However, he only played with their AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley, recording 21 points (8-13-21) in 42 games. The 27-year-old has 33 career games of NHL experience with Anaheim and will carry a cap hit of $750K.
As for Lettieri, he spent the last four years in the Rangers’ system and is coming off a strong performance with AHL Hartford last season where he had 25 goals and 22 assists in 61 games to lead the Wolf Pack in scoring. Despite that, he didn’t receive a recall to New York although he has 46 games of NHL experience under his belt from previous years. The 25-year-old will get $750K in the NHL and $425K in the minors.
Poturalski, meanwhile, had an injury-riddled first season in Anaheim’s system after coming over from Carolina last summer as he was limited to just 17 games with AHL San Diego where he had two goals and five assists. He was a top-end producer at that level in 2018-19 when he finished fifth in AHL scoring. The 26-year-old gets $700K in the NHL and $350K in the minors with a total guarantee on the deal of $425K.