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Max Willman

Waiver Wire: 10/4/24

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman all 17 players on waivers yesterday have cleared. There are again several players to hit the wire today as reported by Friedman:

Anaheim Ducks

F Jansen Harkins

Boston Bruins

G Michael DiPietro
F Vinni Lettieri
D Jordan Oesterle

Florida Panthers

F William Lockwood

Los Angeles Kings

F Taylor Ward

New Jersey Devils

F Justin Dowling
F Mike Hardman
F Samuel Laberge
F Nathan Légaré
F Maxwell Willman

Philadelphia Flyers

F Olle Lycksell
F Anthony Richard

Pittsburgh Penguins

F Emil Bemström
D Nate Clurman
F Jonathan Gruden
F Joona Koppanen
D Filip Král
D John Ludvig
F Samuel Poulin

Tampa Bay Lightning

G Matt Tomkins

Toronto Maple Leafs

F Alex Steeves

Washington Capitals

D Ethan Bear
F Luke Philp
F Michael Sgarbossa

Devils Re-Sign Maxwell Willman, Nathan Légaré

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The Devils announced Tuesday that they’ve re-signed forwards Maxwell Willman and Nathan Légaré to one-year, two-way deals with matching $775K cap hits and NHL salaries. Per the team, Willman will earn a $275K AHL salary with $300K guaranteed, while Légaré will earn an AHL salary of $85K.

Willman, 29, returns for his second season in New Jersey. He played in 18 games last season in fourth-line call-up duties, scoring three goals and adding an assist while averaging a minuscule 8:20 per game. It was his first extended NHL action since appearing in 41 games for the Flyers in 2021-22.

He spent a solid chunk of the season on assignment to AHL Utica, where he had arguably his best offensive season as a professional. The former Brown and Boston University forward had 12 goals and 22 points in 32 contests with Utica, reaching a career-high 0.67 points per game in the AHL. The Massachusetts native was only used as injury insurance this season, though, and likely isn’t in consideration for a spot in next season’s opening night lineup. It’s still a nice bit of financial insurance for the veteran, who lands his highest guaranteed salary to date.

Like Willman, Légaré is almost definitely headed for Utica next season. The 23-year-old was a third-round pick of the Penguins back in 2019 but is already on his third NHL organization, heading to the Canadiens in last summer’s Erik Karlsson three-way trade before landing with New Jersey in a minor-league swap in March. The Montreal native was wrapping up his entry-level contract and received just a $15K bump in his minors salary. In 57 games with AHL Laval and Utica this season, the right winger struggled to produce, limited to eight goals and 12 points with a -10 rating.

Willman will be an unrestricted free agent in 2025, while the Devils will retain control over Légaré as a restricted free agent. Both will need to clear waivers to head to Utica if cut from the roster during training camp.

Devils Assign Max Willman To Minors

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The Devils have done some roster trimming before tomorrow’s game against the Senators, announcing the assignment of forward Maxwell Willman to AHL Utica. His reassignment signals that Nolan Foote, who hasn’t played since a four-game conditioning stint in Utica one month ago, could soon be cleared for game action. Foote participated in today’s practice, per Amanda Stein of the Devils’ official site, but line rushes indicate he’s unlikely to make his season debut for New Jersey tomorrow. Willman’s now-vacant roster spot could also go to a defense callup, as interim head coach Travis Green told Stein that blue-liner John Marino is questionable against Ottawa due to an undisclosed injury.

Willman, 29, was inked to a one-year, two-way deal last offseason and has logged significant action in both New Jersey and Utica. He’s been recalled six times, making 18 NHL appearances, but his four points, 40.1 CF% at even strength, and minimal usage (8:20 per game) have done little to put him in consideration for a full-time spot on the Devils’ roster.

His NHL career began with six points in 41 games with the Flyers in 2021-22, although his possession metrics were similarly poor in that span: a -13 rating and 42.9 CF%. He played only nine games the following campaign, spending most of it in the minors. Since turning pro five years ago, he’s held down a middle-six role with 88 points in 173 AHL games and 25 points in 20 ECHL games.

With six games remaining on their schedule and playoffs no longer a remote possibility, this will be Willman’s last transaction of the season unless a sudden rash of injuries strikes the Devils’ forward group. He’s not going to be a long-term NHL option for anyone at this rate, but with 11 goals and 21 points in 31 games with Utica this season, he’s proven his value to the organization as a veteran presence in the minors. A pending UFA, Willman likely won’t earn anything much higher than his current $150K guaranteed salary on his next deal.

Metropolitan Notes: Nedeljkovic, Blue Jackets, Devils

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Heading into the trade deadline, many expected that the Penguins would move pending UFA goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic.  However, they instead moved third-stringer Magnus Hellberg.  Nedeljkovic told reporters including Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that there weren’t any discussions about a contract extension before the deadline but that he’d be very happy to return for next season if Pittsburgh showed interest.  After spending a good chunk of last season in the minors, the 28-year-old inked a one-year, $1.5MM deal with the Penguins last summer and has done relatively well, posting a 2.98 GAA and a .904 SV% in 24 appearances.  At a minimum, even if he doesn’t wind up staying with Pittsburgh, Nedeljkovic should be able to land a raise in the coming months.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • The Blue Jackets have made a very deep preliminary list of candidates for their vacant GM position. In the latest TSN Insider Trading segment, Pierre LeBrun indicated that the team has between 30 and 40 candidates on their initial list and more could be added depending on how things go early in the playoffs.  Columbus has been without a GM since Jarmo Kekalainen was fired five weeks ago with John Davidson serving in an interim capacity since then.
  • The frequent shuffling of Max Willman and Tyler Wotherspoon continues. A day after sending them back to AHL Utica, the Devils have recalled both players today, per the AHL’s transactions log.  Both recalls are once again on an emergency basis.  The reason for New Jersey sending them down between games could have to do with their waiver exemption; once they play in ten games or are on the NHL roster for 30 days, they’d have to clear to return to the Comets.  By papering them down here and there, they can delay getting to that point with both players.

Devils Return Tyler Wotherspoon, Max Willman To AHL

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March 17: Both Willman and Wotherspoon were returned to AHL Utica after yesterday’s loss to the Coyotes, per CapFriendly. The two depth pieces did not play during their call-ups, as they were healthy scratches against Arizona and the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

March 13: In light of some injuries over the last several days, the New Jersey Devils were put in a position to call up a few players from their AHL affiliate. Coming from the Utica Comets, the team has recalled defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon and forward Maxwell Willman.

Being the veteran of the two call-ups, Wotherspoon has less playing experience at the NHL level as compared to Willman. After being drafted 57th overall by the Calgary Flames in the 2011 NHL Draft, Wotherspoon has only managed 30 games at the NHL level, tallying three assists in total.

In the American Hockey League, Wotherspoon has gained much more experience, playing in a total of 605 regular season games between the Flames, Flyers, and Devils organization. Now in a formal leadership role during the twilight years of his career, Wotherspoon has scored 37 goals and 209 points throughout his minor league career.

Willman is the only one of the two to have played with New Jersey this season, putting together a two-point season over 13 games up to this point. In his first year with the Devils organization, Willman was already a veteran of 50 NHL games over the last two seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Outside of New Jersey, Willman has been a positive addition to the Comets this year, scoring 11 goals and 21 points in 31 games already. Currently sitting five points back of a playoff position in the AHL’s North Division, Utica will have to let go of their seventh-highest scorer for the time being.

Devils Place Max Willman On Waivers

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Feb. 12: Willman has cleared waivers and can now be assigned to Utica, per Johnston.

Feb. 11: The Devils placed forward Max Willman on waivers Sunday for the purpose of assignment to AHL Utica, according to Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.

Willman, 28, has been a fourth-line fill-in as necessary as injuries weakened New Jersey’s forward group over the past few months. He cleared waivers once already this season when he was cut from the team during training camp, but after playing more than ten games (and no longer being on an emergency loan), he needs them again to return to Utica.

With Jack Hughes and Tomáš Nosek recently returning from long-term absences, though, there’s no longer a need for Willman in the team’s bottom six. He was a healthy scratch in the team’s last two games and is the second healthy extra forward on the active roster alongside Chris Tierney.

Willman has a goal and an assist in 13 games with the Devils, his most in a single season since playing in 41 contests for the Flyers in 2021-22. The Devils struggled to maintain puck possession with Willman on the ice in his limited role, posting a Corsi share of 42.9% at even strength while he averaged less than 10 minutes per game.

The Massachusetts-born winger has enjoyed his highest level of offensive success when in the AHL this season, posting nine goals and 16 points in 20 games. A draft choice of the Sabres in 2014, he remains a top-six AHL presence at this stage of his career and is slated for unrestricted free agency this summer.

Injury Notes: Nosek, Spurgeon, Toffoli

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Earlier today, the New Jersey Devils announced that the team has activated forward Tomas Nosek off of long-term injured reserve. After signing a one-year, $1MM contract with the Devils as an unrestricted free agent this past offseason, foot surgery has kept him out of the lineup since early November, limiting him to only six games on the season.

Nosek was originally brought in to be an effective fourth-line center option for the Devils, a title that has since been held by multiple different players. In his six games on the year, Nosek has gone scoreless while averaging a career-low in average time on ice.

With top forward Jack Hughes still out of the lineup, Nosek will not exactly fill in any void left by Hughes, but nonetheless fills a hole in the forward unit. For a team that has had very little stability down the middle of the ice at the bottom of the lineup, the return of Nosek will at least give them that moving forward.

Other injury notes:

  • On January 18th, it was announced that Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon would miss the rest of the 2023-24 season due to surgery on his back and his hip. Today, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that Spurgeon underwent successful surgery on his back, and will undergo hip surgery in approximately a month. In a lost season for both player and team, Spurgeon will have finished with a career-low 16 games played for the Wild, only tallying five assists overall.
  • Back in New Jersey, before their game tonight against the Colorado Avalanche, Ryan Novozinsky of Star-Ledger reported that forward Tyler Toffoli would miss the action tonight due to illness. In his stead, depth forward Maxwell Willman will draw back into the lineup, lining up on the wing next to Curtis Lazar and Nathan Bastian against their Central Division-leading opponents.

Devils Place Timo Meier On IR, Recall Max Willman

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The Devils have made a pair of roster moves before tonight’s game against Vancouver.  The team announced (Twitter link) that winger Timo Meier has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to December 30th.  With the open roster spot, the team has recalled Max Willman from AHL Utica.

Meier has missed the last week with what was termed as a mid-body injury.  That came on the heels of him missing a couple of weeks with a lower-body issue earlier in the season as well.  The 27-year-old hasn’t had a great first full season with New Jersey, notching just nine goals with six assists through his first 28 games.  That’s not the type of output they were expecting when they acquired him from San Jose last season and signed him to an eight-year, $70.4MM contract back in June.  With the back-dated placement, he will have already missed seven days so he’ll be eligible to be activated as soon as he’s cleared to return.

As for Willman, he turned a PTO into a two-way deal in October and this will be his third recall of the season.  He has played in four games with New Jersey so far, picking up his first goal since the 2021-22 campaign with Philadelphia while logging a little over 11 minutes a night.  The 28-year-old has spent most of the year in the minors, notching nine goals and seven assists in 20 games so far.  Assuming Meier’s injury is a short one, it’s likely that this stint on the roster will be a short one for Willman.

Snapshots: Vilardi, MacEwen, Foudy, Willman

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The Winnipeg Jets have shared that Gabriel Vilardi is not yet ready to return, although he is continuing to progress in his recovery from a knee injury. The forward is expected to be a game-time decision for the Jets’ Thursday night matchup. Vilardi suffered an MCL sprain early on in the season and was expected to miss four to six weeks.

The 24-year-old Vilardi has only managed three appearances with Winnipeg this season, netting one assist and a -1. It’s his first year with the club after joining via trade in June, moving to Winnipeg alongside Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari in the deal that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings. Winnipeg tendered a qualifying offer to Vilardi and was headed towards salary arbitration, before the avoided arbitration with a two-year, $6.9MM contract.

Vilardi had the best season of his young career last year, netting 23 goals and 41 points in 63 games with the Kings. He also added four points in five playoff games. The scoring brings his career totals up to 41 goals and 79 points through 155 games, stretched across the last four seasons. Vilardi was previously drafted 11th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft and made his NHL debut in the 2019-20 season. He is one of four players from the 2017 draft class’ Top 15 to not yet eclipse 200 career NHL games, alongside Cody Glass, Cal Foote, and Lias Andersson.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Ottawa Senators forward Zack MacEwen has been fined $2,018.23 – the maximum allowed under the CBA – for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty taken in Monday’s game against the Florida Panthers. MacEwen targeted Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk late in the game, receiving a five-minute match penalty for a check to the head in the game. MacEwen has appeared in six Senators games this season, scoring one assist and totaling 25 penalty minutes.
  • Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar shared that forward Jean-Luc Foudy is suffering from a lower-body injury. Bednar also shared that the team doesn’t yet know when to expect Foudy back. Foudy has yet to play this season and is currently on the team’s injured reserve. He scored 36 points in 46 AHL games last season. He was also rewarded his first nine NHL games last year, going without a point and recording a -3.
  • The New Jersey Devils have assigned forward Maxwell Willman to the Utica Comets of the AHL. Willman has appeared in four games with the Devils this season, netting one goal. He’s also appeared in seven AHL games, scoring four goals and seven points. The 28-year-old forward has totaled 54 NHL games and seven points across his career, making his debut with the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2021-22 season.

New Jersey Devils Reassign Max Willman

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According to the AHL’s official transactions wire, the New Jersey Devils have reassigned forward Max Willman to their AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets. In a corresponding move, the Comets have reassigned forward Erik Middendorf has been reassigned to the Devils organization’s ECHL affiliate, the Adirondack Thunder.

Willman is a 28-year-old center who signed a one-year, $775k contract with the Devils in the offseason. After his five-year collegiate career ended, Willman, a former Buffalo Sabres draft pick, began his pro career in the ECHL with the Reading Royals. He scored 25 points in just 20 games, earning a quick call-up to the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Willman would go on to establish himself as a regular player for the Phantoms over the next few years, even earning a total of 50 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers.

He was signed by the Devils over the summer to bolster the organization’s forward depth, and he has played a heightened role for the Comets than what he normally received with Lehigh Valley. He’s responded to getting first-line minutes with production, as he’s posted seven points in seven games.

The Devils rewarded his hot start with an NHL call-up, and he played in two games for the club. He played 11-12 minutes in each contest and even scored a goal against the Chicago Blackhawks before settling in as a healthy scratch.

With the Devils optimistic that Colin Miller will be able to return to the lineup on their two-game road trip, sending down Willman clears a spot on the Devils’ roster that can go to Miller when he is able to be activated off of injured reserve.

With Willman back on Utica’s roster, Middendorf was returned to Adirondack. The 23-year-old former Michigan State Spartan is in his first full season as a professional player, and he has gotten off to a good start for the Thunder. He’s scored three goals and four points in five games, and was rewarded with an AHL call-up. He registered one shot on goal during the Comets’ loss against the Rochester Americans on November 10th, and now he’ll return to the Thunder having gotten a taste of AHL hockey.

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