Sharks Place Vincent Iorio On Waivers
The San Jose Sharks have placed defenseman Vincent Iorio on waivers per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. If he clears, Iorio will become eligible for assignment to the AHL, after spending the last six games as a healthy scratch. San Jose claimed Iorio off of waivers from the Washington Capitals in the second week of the NHL season. The Sharks wielded one of the top claim spots in the league at the time and will now face the risk of allowing the rest of the league a chance at claiming the young, two-way defender.
Iorio has had an up-and-down year since joining the Sharks’ depth chart. He has appeared in 21 NHL games – more than the nine games he combined for over the last two seasons – but only has three points and a minus-four to show for it. He’s failed to find a true groove near the bottom of a beat-up blue-line, but showed his prowess on a brief AHL conditioning stint earlier this season. Iorio was loaned to the minors for six games in November, after recovering from an injury that held him out of the first week of the month. He scored in five of those games, ultimately totaling seven assists and a plus-seven on the assignment.
Those numbers haven’t translated to the top flight yet, though Iorio did have a string of strong appearances at the turn of the new year. An assignment to the minors will allow the 23 year old to get back into a productive groove. It will also give the Sharks a bit more freedom to ice bruising veteran Vincent Desharnais, who has played in five of the six games that Iorio has been scratched. Desharnais has three points and 38 penalty minutes in 25 games this season.
Hurricanes Reassign Noah Philp, Joel Nystrom
Jan. 29th: Carolina indirectly confirmed that Philp cleared waivers, announcing that they’ve reassigned him and defenseman Joel Nystrom to AHL Chicago. Nystrom’s demotion was expected, given that the team shared that Shayne Gostisbehere would return tonight after a five-game absence due to a lower-body injury. Nystrom scored one goal in four games during his recall, averaging 11:25 of ice time per game.
Jan. 28th: The Hurricanes have placed center Noah Philp on waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He had been on injured reserve with a concussion; now that he’s healthy, he won’t be back with Carolina. He’ll either be headed to AHL Chicago or another NHL club if he’s claimed off the wire.
Philp, 27, was claimed off waivers from the Oilers just last month. If Edmonton submits a claim for him and is the only team to do so, they could send him directly to their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield without having to waive him again.
The Alberta-born pivot sustained the concussion in just his second appearance for Carolina on Jan. 6 against the Stars. He logged just 18:26 of total ice time across the pair of contests in a Canes sweater, notching two shots on goal and six hits while going 11-for-21 (52.4%) on draws. Including a 15-game run with the Oilers earlier in the year, he has a 2-1–3 scoring line with a -7 rating in 17 showings in his second NHL season.
There are red flags in Philp’s possession game. Even accounting for his deployment as a shutdown center at even strength, his 41.6 CF% at 5-on-5 is ghastly for a center who played in two extremely favorable possession environments in Carolina and Edmonton. He had a 54.8 CF% in 15 games with the Oilers last year, but in far more sheltered usage. There’s been some intrigue in the 6’3″, 200-lb frame he brings to the table, but it will be hard to continue justifying deploying him in a grinder role at the bottom of the lineup if he continues to be a significant drag on his team’s ability to control play.
Signed as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Alberta in 2022, Philp does have a nice 38-34–72 scoring line with a +13 rating in 130 career AHL games, all with Bakersfield. That includes a 35-point effort in only 55 games last year after he took a leave of absence for the entire 2023-24 campaign. The Oilers are likely hoping they’re the lone interested party in retaining him, either for familiar fourth-line depth or an AHL needle-mover.
Blue Jackets Reassign Zach Aston-Reese, Brendan Gaunce
Jan. 28: Both cleared waivers and are headed to Cleveland, per Friedman.
Jan 27.: The Blue Jackets have placed forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Brendan Gaunce on waivers, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. The open roster spots will allow Columbus to activate defenseman Denton Mateychuk from injured reserve before tomorrow’s game, as expected. Forward Miles Wood will also be coming off IR, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports.
Aston-Reese, 31, is in his ninth NHL season. He’s become a bit of a journeyman as of late after breaking into the league with the Penguins, also making stops in Anaheim, Toronto, and Detroit since 2022. With 102 career points and a +17 rating in 415 games, he was once regarded as one of the league’s top low-usage defensive forwards in Pittsburgh, but has since been mired in year-to-year inconsistency. He spent most of 2023-24 in the minors with the Red Wings before breaking back into a regular role with Columbus last year.
After appearing in 76 games for the Jackets last year and earning a one-year, league minimum extension, playing time has been tougher to come by for Aston-Reese in 2025-26. He’s played in just over half of Columbus’ games this season and has now been a healthy scratch in six of eight. He’s scored a goal and five points in 26 outings, recording a career-low 0.65 shots on goal per game (aside from his three-game sample size in Detroit). He’s still blocking shots and hitting with aplomb, but with ice average ice time now back under 10 minutes per game and his possession impacts dwindling, he hasn’t been much more than a 13th forward – especially with offseason signing Isac Lundeström taking some of Aston-Reese’s penalty-kill minutes.
Unlike Aston-Reese, Gaunce didn’t start the year on the active roster, but has logged roughly the same amount of playing time anyway. He cleared waivers in camp and headed to Cleveland, but has been up with the Jackets since November. In 25 showings, the 31-year-old has been moderately more productive with two goals and six points. He’s been especially valuable on draws, where he’s winning a team-high 56.9% of faceoffs. Nonetheless, with Lundeström back after missing a few weeks, he’s been in the press box for the last two games.
For now, Danton Heinen has earned the honor of serving as the Jackets’ 13th forward while Aston-Reese and Gaunce head back to Cleveland or get claimed by another squad. Since being acquired from the Penguins in the Egor Chinakhov deal last month, he’s put up two points in 11 games with a -1 rating and 21 hits.
Wood, 30, has been out of action since New Year’s Eve because of a leg injury. Between that and some previous ailments, he’s missed 19 of the Jackets’ 51 games but has still churned out an 8-4–12 scoring line in 32 outings. That’s twice as many goals as the speedy winger had last year in a similar number of games for the Avalanche, and with Charlie Coyle now up to 33 points in 51 games on the year, it’s safe to say Columbus is happy with the investment they made when bringing them both in via trade from Colorado.
Panthers’ Jack Studnicka Clears Waivers, Reassigned To AHL
Jan. 21st: Although it’s come a day later than expected, the Panthers officially reassigned Studnicka to AHL Charlotte today.
Jan. 20th: As expected, Studnicka has made it through waivers unscathed per Friedman. The Panthers are expected to assign Studnicka to AHL Charlotte at some point today.
Jan. 19th: Now that Matthew Tkachuk is back in action for the Florida Panthers, the team was likely to clear a forward from their active roster. They have done just that, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that they’ve placed Jack Studnicka on waivers.
Studnicka, 26, has been on the Panthers roster since December 1st. He’s been in an extremely isolated role since, going scoreless in 18 games with a -6 rating, averaging 7:04 of ice time. Furthermore, given his 46.3% CorsiFor% and 85.2% on-ice SV% at even strength, Studnicka provided little to no value to Florida’s lineup even when he was playing.
Still, there wasn’t much indication that the Panthers needed much more from Studnicka, anyway. He signed a one-year, league minimum deal with the organization last summer, meaning it was always likely he would exclusively serve as an injury replacement. Given how many injuries the Panthers have dealt with this year, Studnicka got a longer stay on the NHL roster than he may have expected.
Despite offering little production at the NHL level, the same can’t be said for his play in the AHL. Last season, while playing for the AHL’s Ontario Reign, Studnicka scored 16 goals and totaled 45 points in 72 games, finishing with a +4 rating. Before being recalled by the Panthers this year, he scored one goal and six points in eight games for the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers.
Bruins Place Vladislav Kolyachonok On Waivers
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet shared earlier today that the Boston Bruins have waived Vladislav Kolyachonok. The defenseman finds himself back on the wire after being claimed by the Bruins from Dallas in mid-December.
A second-round selection of the Panthers in 2019, Kolyachonok was picked up due to an abundance of injuries to Boston defenders last month, not seeming to be in the long-term plans. The 24-year-old managed to get into two games in late December, deployed on the third pairing alongside Mason Lohrei. Kolyachonok, facing the challenge of playing in his off side on a new team, averaged just over 12 minutes between the two, and was a -1. Boston dropped both contests, and were outscored 10-3.
Since then, the team has reeled off a six game winning streak, and with Hampus Lindholm activated three days ago, Kolyachonok finds himself the odd man out again. The young Belarus native is no stranger to transactions, a part of trades involving notable names in Anton Strålman and Mathew Dumba in prior years, along with another waiver claim last February, taking him from Utah to Pittsburgh.
Kolyachonok offers a stay-at-home game, to this point hampered by a lack of offense to stick in the highest level consistently. In his 87 career NHL appearances across four organizations, he has 17 points. Kolyachonok had solid production in 11 games for Dallas to start the season, but was passed over in favor of veteran Kyle Capobianco, the team hoping he’d clear before Boston took a flyer.
If unclaimed, the 6’2″ lefty would be a welcome addition to the Providence Bruins, who are currently ranked third in the AHL. However, with limited opportunities in Boston moving forward, he could favor an opportunity elsewhere.
Lost by Dallas after they’d sought him out in the Dumba deal, Kolyachonok could find himself back where he’d started the campaign. If the Stars would be the only team to submit a claim, they could assign him to the AHL immediately, the 26th-ranked Texas Stars in need of help on the blueline. Besides other teams who could show interest ahead of them, the Stars have an intriguing chance to take him back, which would end a short stop in Boston.
Kolyachonok is a pending restricted free agent this season, and still offering untapped potential as a bottom pairing option, he figures to garner attention from other teams in the next 24 hours.
Sharks Reassign Nick Leddy, Activate Vincent Desharnais
Jan. 19th: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Leddy has made it through waivers unscathed. A few moments later, the Sharks announced that Leddy has been reassigned to AHL San Jose, and that Desharnais has been activated from the injured reserve.
Jan. 18th, 2:01 p.m.: Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky confirmed today, per Peng, that it’ll be Vincent Desharnais, not Mukhamadullin, who is the injured Sharks defenseman set to take Leddy’s spot in the lineup. Desharnais has been sidelined since late November with an upper-body injury.
Jan. 18th, 1:13 p.m.: The San Jose Sharks have placed veteran defenseman Nick Leddy on waivers. The news was first reported by San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng.
By placing Leddy on waivers today, the Sharks open up the possibility for Leddy to be reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. Reassignment to the AHL is contingent on Leddy clearing waivers.
Last week, The Hockey News’ Max Miller reported that defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin would travel with the team on their four-game road trip. It appears, as a result, that Mukhamadullin is nearing the point where he’ll be able to be activated off injured reserve. Since the Sharks already have a full 23-man active roster, waiving Leddy today provides the Sharks with an additional amount of roster flexibility in advance of Mukhamadullin’s return. The Sharks would have just six healthy defensemen with Leddy removed from the roster, so it’s easy to tie Leddy’s waiver placement with an impending Mukhamadullin activation.
If Leddy clears waivers, he can be reassigned to the Barracuda, opening up the necessary roster spot for Mukhamadullin’s activation. If Leddy is claimed off waivers, the same goal is achieved — a roster spot is opened up for Mukhamadullin.
Today’s development is an unfortunate one for Leddy, who, at 34, is a veteran of 1,061 NHL games. He hasn’t played in the AHL in more than a decade, his most recent AHL experience coming in 2012-13 with the Rockford IceHogs. His play in 2025-26 has, unfortunately, paved the way for this sort of transaction. He’s struggled this season, frequently finding himself a healthy scratch as the Sharks linger in the Western Conference playoff race.
Leddy’s time on ice per game is down to 17:30, including no power play time and 1:31 of penalty-killing time per game. That’s a distinct decline from how much he was played as recently as 2023-24. That season, Leddy was the St. Louis Blues’ No. 2 defenseman, averaging 22:21 time on ice per game and serving as a top penalty-killer alongside Colton Parayko.
Leddy’s form in San Jose has made those days seem like a distant memory, but his compensation ($4MM cap hit through the end of the year) is still commensurate with his former steady top-four role.
That mismatch between Leddy’s current on-ice value and his level of compensation is likely to keep him from being claimed off of waivers. Although there might be some teams who believe they can get more out of Leddy than he’s provided San Jose, his cap hit likely means he carries too much risk to be claimed.
There are other possibilities on the table to keep Leddy in the NHL, such as a trade, but the Sharks only have one slot left to retain salary, so they might only look to find a trade where the other team can take on the full freight of Leddy’s remaining salary.
Leddy could also elect to sacrifice the remaining portion of his salary and agree on a mutual contract termination, paving the way for him to freely sign with any team willing to offer him a guaranteed NHL role. Two players have already taken that path this season: Egor Zamula and Alexandre Texier. That option worked quite well for Texier in particular, as he seized on the NHL opportunity he sought and got a two-year, $2.5MM AAV contract extension as a result.
If Leddy and the Sharks were to take this route, Leddy would almost certainly sacrifice the remaining pro-rated portion of his $3MM salary for what is left of 2025-26.
There’s no firm indication at this point as to what lies ahead for Leddy. It’s still possible a team could elect to claim him off waivers, and it’s also possible he feels no great pressure to avoid an AHL reassignment at any cost. In any case, today’s move by the Sharks makes Leddy a name to watch in the near future, especially for a team in need of more experienced defensive depth such as the Buffalo Sabres.
Photos courtesy of Robert Edwards-Imagn Images
Juho Lammikko And Colton White Clear Waivers
Saturday: Both Lammikko and White have cleared waivers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. However, with Ondrej Palat‘s availability for tonight’s game uncertain due to illness, Lammikko may remain on the active roster for the time being and could suit up against Carolina if Palat isn’t able to play.
Friday: The New Jersey Devils are attempting to jettison a few depth options from their roster. The Devils announced that they’ve placed forward Juho Lammikko and defenseman Colton White on waivers.
Lammikko, 29, is in his first year with the Devils after spending the last three years overseas with the NL’s ZSC Lions. He was very productive while in Switzerland, scoring 48 goals and 112 points in 144 games with a +60 rating. He signed a one-year, $800K contract with New Jersey last summer.
Despite making the team’s opening night roster, Lammikko had to wait until late October to debut due to a lower-body injury. Largely in a bottom-six role, Lammikko has appeared in 22 games for the Devils this season, registering two assists and a -4 rating while averaging 10:10 of ice time per game.
Meanwhile, unlike Lammikko, White did not immediately make the Devils’ roster this year. Still, due to multiple injuries sustained by New Jersey’s defensive core, White was recalled in early November and has been with the team ever since.
The 28-year-old defenseman has appeared in 23 games for the Devils this season (his second stint with the club), registering four assists and a +2 rating while averaging 12:15 of ice time. He’s been a quality player on the defensive side of the puck, averaging a 93.1% on-ice SV% at even strength.
New Jersey did not immediately clarify if either player would be demoted to the AHL’s Utica Comets should they clear, though it’s largely expected. Still, the Devils could simply be looking for additional roster flexibility.
Assuming both Lammikko and White clear waivers and are reassigned tomorrow afternoon, New Jersey’s active roster would be reduced to 21 players. It’s more than likely the team will make additional recalls then, particularly to their forward core.
Wild Place Matt Kiersted On Waivers
Earlier this week, the Wild ran veteran Tyler Pitlick through waivers without sending him down, simply to restart his 10-game, 30-day exemption period. It appears they’re doing that once again as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that defenseman Matt Kiersted is on waivers.
The 27-year-old is in his first season with Minnesota after signing a two-year, two-way contract (carrying a $775K AAV) with them on the second day of free agency last summer. A veteran of 41 NHL appearances heading into the season, the expectation was that he’d be a key piece in Iowa and a serviceable performer in a depth role if needed with the big club.
So far, things have largely played out that way. Kiersted has played in 23 games with Iowa this season and while his offensive numbers aren’t anything to get excited about with just three assists, he played a big role, especially defensively. That earned him a recall in the second week of December and he has been with Minnesota since then.
Playing time has been hard to come by since joining Minnesota as Kiersted has only played in four games so far. He has an assist and five blocked shots in those outings while picking up five blocked shots in 13:42 per night of ice time. While he hasn’t reached the 10-game mark, he has been up for 30 days, meaning his waiver exemption has expired.
Assuming that Kiersted passes through unclaimed for the second time this season (the other was in training camp), Minnesota can either keep him up in the reserve role he has been filling lately or return him to Iowa and open up some additional salary cap and roster flexibility.
Noah Gregor Clears Waivers
Saturday: Gregor was not claimed on waivers according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He can now be sent down to AHL Charlotte whenever a roster spot is needed to activate Tkachuk.
Friday: The Panthers are shaking up their depth forward group after a tough-to-swallow blowout loss. PuckPedia reports that the club has placed winger Noah Gregor on waivers.
Gregor had appeared in back-to-back games for the Cats after sitting out five straight. Florida’s fourth line of him, Luke Kunin, and Jack Studnicka had a garish showing in the 6-2 loss to Montreal, failing to generate any expected goals at 5-on-5 while getting outscored 2-0 in less than five minutes of ice time.
His waiver placement should serve a dual purpose of opening a roster spot for Matthew Tkachuk, who’s been skating for a few days now and should be ready to come off long-term injured reserve and make his season debut in the near future. That’s must-hear news for a Florida squad that’s now 3-5-1 in its last nine, losing ground in a tight Eastern Conference playoff race. Injuries have taken an incredible toll on their record, which now stands at 22-18-3, leaving the two-time defending champs three points out of a playoff spot.
As for Gregor, the 27-year-old could bounce to his fifth NHL organization if he’s claimed off the wire. Non-tendered by the Sharks last year, he went unsigned before landing a professional tryout with the Cats in September and converting that into a two-way deal at the end of training camp. He’s been in and out of the lineup as a 12th/13th forward option with Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Tomas Nosek, and more missing all or most of the year.
In 24 appearances, the high-motor depth option has one goal and two assists with a -7 rating. He’s averaged just 8:05 per night while posting an ugly 45.8% shot attempt share despite receiving sheltered offensive zone starts. Especially seeing as he’s on a two-way deal, he was always going to be one of the first names to hit waivers if Florida needed a roster spot.
For a league-minimum price tag, there might be some interest in Gregor, who has 73 points in 317 career NHL games dating back to his debut in San Jose in 2019-20.
Dennis Cholowski Clears Waivers
Saturday: Cholowski has cleared waivers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. The team quickly announced that he was sent down to Utica.
Friday: The Devils announced they’ve placed defenseman Dennis Cholowski on waivers with the intent to assign him to AHL Utica. New Jersey will be left with an open roster spot tomorrow after he is reassigned or claimed.
Cholowski’s waiver placement is likely the first in a complicated series of transactions to activate fellow rearguard Johnathan Kovacevic from long-term injured reserve. The Devils need to free up roughly $3MM in cap space to do so, and they’re running out of time after he began skating with the team at practice earlier this week, per Kristy Flannery of The Hockey News.
Removing the 27-year-old Cholowski from the roster gets them $775K closer to their goal. The Devils acquired him from the Islanders at last year’s trade deadline after he’d re-emerged as a press-box option in New York. He played six games for the Devils as an extra body down the stretch and re-signed with the club on a one-year, one-way deal for the league minimum in July.
Cholowski stuck around on New Jersey’s opening night roster, in large part due to Kovacevic’s knee surgery, but hasn’t been relied upon heavily. He’s been a frequent healthy scratch, particularly with Brett Pesce and Simon Nemec recently returning from injuries, and hasn’t suited up in nearly a month. He’s now been scratched in 11 straight and has only played in 15 of the Devils’ 44 games.
When dressed, the puck-mover has been overused in defensive situations, ranking last among Devils defenders with a 42.6 offensive zone start percentage at even strength. As a result, he only has one assist with a -5 rating while posting a 46.1 CF%, also the worst figure among New Jersey rearguards. Far from being known for his physicality, the 6’2″ lefty has only logged 15 blocks and three hits as well.
Now, he hits waivers for the first time in 2025-26 after clearing them multiple times with the Isles over the past few seasons. The 2016 first-round pick last suited up in the AHL in March of last year with Bridgeport. He has 18 goals and 123 points with a -46 rating in 241 career minor-league games.