25 Players Clear Waivers
October 3: The New Jersey Devils claimed Mason Geertsen on waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. All other players cleared.
October 2: As expected, it’s another busy day on the waiver wire today as Chris Johnston of the Toronto Star and TSN reports (Twitter link) that the following 26 players have been placed on waivers:
F Cavan Fitzgerald (CAR)
F Maxim Letunov (CAR)
F Sam Miletic (CAR)
F Andrew Poturalski (CAR)
F Spencer Smallman (CAR)
F Brayden Burke (LA)
D Kale Clague (LA)
F Martin Frk (LA)
D Jacob Moverare (LA)
G Garret Sparks (LA)
F T.J. Tynan (LA)
F Lukas Vejdemo (MTL)
D Mason Geertsen (NYR)
G Antoine Bibeau (SEA)
D Connor Carrick (SEA)
D Cale Fleury (SEA)
D Gustav Olofsson (SEA)
F Tanner Kaspick (STL)
F Matthew Peca (STL)
F Nolan Stevens (STL)
G Maxime Lagace (TB)
C Otto Somppi (TB)
D Daniel Walcott (TB)
F Shane Gersich (WSH)
D Lucas Johansen (WSH)
D Dylan McIlrath (WSH)
A pair of young defensemen stand out among the long list of those available. Clague played in 18 games with the Kings last season, recording six assists while logging over 17 minutes a night. A productive scorer in junior, the 2015 second-rounder hasn’t been able to lock down a regular roster spot in the NHL yet but at 23, it wouldn’t be surprising if a team took a chance on him. Fleury was selected from Montreal in expansion by the Kraken and while he didn’t see any NHL action last season, he played in 41 games with the Canadiens in 2019-20 on their third pairing. With Montreal losing Sami Niku to a concussion on Friday night, they might be interested in a reunion.
Up front, Frk has had some success in limited NHL opportunities, notching six goals in 17 games with the Kings in 2019-20 and had a 25-point season with Detroit in 2017-18. Poturalski led the AHL in scoring last season with 43 points in 44 games with AHL San Diego and had 70-point campaign with Charlotte in 2018-19.
Teams will have until 1 PM CT on Sunday to place a claim on any of these players.
Rangers Sign Mason Geertsen
When he was placed on waivers today, it was clear that the Rangers had agreed to terms on an NHL deal with defenseman Mason Geertsen. The terms of that agreement are now known as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the blueliner has inked a two-year contract that breaks down as follows:
2020-21: $700K NHL salary, $100K AHL salary
2021-22: $750K NHL salary, $110K AHL salary
The 25-year-old was a fourth-round pick (93rd overall) of Colorado back in 2013 and spent four seasons in their minor league system, splitting time between the AHL and ECHL before being non-tendered in 2018. That led him to the Rangers where he played on a minor league contract for the past year and a half until today’s conversion to an NHL contract.
Geertsen isn’t going to be counted to provide much offense for AHL Hartford (assuming he clears waivers as expected tomorrow) as his career-high in goals in a single season at that level is just three. He’s more of a stay-at-home, physical blueliner which makes it interesting that the Rangers opted to use an NHL contract on him at this time as players like that don’t typically get NHL deals at this stage of their careers. He becomes the 45th player signed out of a maximum of 50 so GM Jeff Gorton still has some flexibility on the contract limit to work with which is notable with college free agency on the horizon.