Ducks Claim James Reimer Off Waivers From Sabres
The Ducks have claimed netminder James Reimer off waivers from the Sabres, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.
Reimer, 36, has over 500 games of NHL experience and was still serviceable in a rotation role for the Red Wings last year but was knocked squarely into a third-string spot on the Sabres’ depth chart behind Devon Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen after signing a one-year, $1MM deal there in July. He was largely expected to land on waivers unless Buffalo opted to carry three goalies.
While the veteran was solid enough for Detroit in 2023-24, his 20 starts and five relief appearances were both career-lows. His .904 SV%, 3.11 GAA, and 0.3 GSAA were all marked steps forward from the prior year’s showing with the rebuilding Sharks, however, and he’s still likely worth a shot as a full-time backup somewhere.
He’ll get that chance in Anaheim, at least for now. The Ducks were looking for a veteran name to add to the mix with John Gibson on the shelf to start the season after getting his appendix removed nearly two weeks ago. He’s still one to four weeks away from a return, meaning rookie Calle Clang (who has no NHL games played under his belt) was set to start the year as the backup to youngster Lukáš Dostál. After claiming Reimer, though, the Ducks can return Clang to AHL San Diego.
The Ducks now have their opening night roster set in stone at 13 forwards, eight defenders, and two goalies, assuming Clang is sent down. They’ll have $20.64MM in projected cap space after the acquisition, per PuckPedia.
Waiver Wire: 10/6/24
Today is the major day for the waiver wire as most teams in the NHL are preparing the 23-man rosters for the 2024-25 NHL season. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed that all players on waivers from yesterday have cleared. The following list is each player placed on waivers this afternoon as reported by PuckPedia.
Boston Bruins
F Patrick Brown
G Brandon Bussi
G Jiri Patera
D Billy Sweezey
F Jeffrey Viel
Buffalo Sabres
D Kale Clague
G James Reimer
F Lukas Rousek
Calgary Flames
G Devin Cooley
F Jakob Pelletier
F Cole Schwindt
Carolina Hurricanes
F Josiah Slavin
D Ty Smith
F Ryan Suzuki
Chicago Blackhawks
Detroit Red Wings
F Sheldon Dries
D Justin Holl
D William Lagesson
D Brogan Rafferty
F Joe Snively
Edmonton Oilers
D Josh Brown
F Drake Caggiula
F Raphael Lavoie
G Olivier Rodrigue
Los Angeles Kings
G Pheonix Copley
F Samuel Fagemo
F Jack Studnicka
Nashville Predators
New Jersey Devils
F Shane Bowers
D Nick DeSimone
F Nolan Foote
D Colton White
New York Islanders
D Samuel Bolduc
F Pierre Engvall
F Hudson Fasching
F Liam Foudy
G Marcus Hogberg
D Grant Hutton
F Fredrik Karlstrom
G Jakub Skarek
New York Rangers
Ottawa Senators
Pittsburgh Penguins
D Sebastian Aho
F Bokondji Imama
St. Louis Blues
D Corey Schueneman
D Tyler Tucker
Tampa Bay Lightning
F Gage Goncalves
D Steven Santini
F Jesse Ylonen
Toronto Maple Leafs
G Matt Murray
D Marshall Rifai
Utah Hockey Club
Vancouver Canucks
Vegas Golden Knights
F Zach Aston-Reese
F Tanner Laczynski
F Jonas Rondbjerg
Washington Capitals
Winnipeg Jets
Edmonton Oilers Place Four Players On Waivers
The defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers are placing four players on waivers as they put the finishing touches on their 2024-25 opening night roster. The organization announced it had placed forwards Drake Caggiula and Raphael Lavoie, defenseman Josh Brown, and goaltender Olivier Rodrigue on waivers.
Caggiula and Brown are depth players with an outside chance of making the roster in specific roles. Neither player was expected to play meaningful minutes for the Oilers this season but will now start the season with their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, assuming both clear waivers tomorrow.
The demotion of Brown will give Edmonton some cap relief, as well. The organization signed Brown to a three-year, $3MM contract on the opening day of free agency this past summer and the Oilers can now entirely remove that cap hit since his salary falls below the $1.25MM threshold.
Placing Lavoie on waivers to start the season may be a bold call by Edmonton’s brass. The team drafted Lavoie with the 38th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft and he’s coming off back-to-back quality campaigns with the Condors. He’s proven to be a quality scorer at the AHL level with 53 goals and 95 points in 127 games since the start of the 2022-23 AHL season.
Lavoie appeared to be an NHL-caliber scorer the Oilers could plug into their bottom-six to start the year and there’s a legitimate chance he’ll be on another team’s roster by tomorrow afternoon. If not, he will start the year in Bakersfield and should serve as an immediate call-up should the Oilers find themselves in injury trouble early.
Rodrigue struggled early upon his start with the Condors during the 2020-21 AHL season but has grown his prospect quality since. He finished last season with a 19-12-5 record in Bakersfield with a .916 SV% and 2.73 GAA. His demotion is mostly circumstantial as Edmonton doesn’t have the financial flexibility to carry three netminders during the season. Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard will start the year as the team’s tandem.
Waiver Wire: 10/5/24
With season-opening rosters due in just over 48 hours, it’s going to be a busy weekend on the waiver front across the NHL. A total of 14 players are on waivers today. The players below were first reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link) unless otherwise specified. Meanwhile, Friedman relays (Twitter link) that of the 25 players on the wire yesterday, all cleared aside from John Ludvig who was claimed by Colorado.
Anaheim Ducks
Colorado Avalanche
Dallas Stars
D Kyle Capobianco
G Magnus Hellberg
F Cameron Hughes
F Kole Lind
D Alexander Petrovic
F Emilio Pettersen
Florida Panthers
Minnesota Wild (per team release)
New York Rangers
Seattle Kraken (per team announcement)
These players will be on waivers until 1:00 PM CT on Sunday.
Avalanche Claim John Ludvig Off Waivers
The Avalanche have added some defensive depth via the waiver wire. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that they’ve claimed blueliner John Ludvig off waivers from Pittsburgh.
It’s the second year in a row that the 24-year-old has been scooped off waivers in training camp. Last year, it was the Penguins claiming him from Florida.
Last season, Ludvig saw regular action with Pittsburgh when he wasn’t injured. However, injuries were an issue for him as he missed time with a concussion and an upper-body injury before undergoing offseason wrist surgery. In between, he played in 33 games, his first taste of NHL action. In those, he had three goals and two assists along with 47 penalty minutes, 33 blocks, and 72 hits in a little under 12 minutes per night.
Colorado is an interesting landing spot for Ludvig as they have already brought in three new blueliners this summer to shore up their depth in Oliver Kylington, Erik Brannstrom, and Calvin de Haan. They also have Sam Malinski who is now waiver-eligible so adding to that group comes as a bit of a surprise. Assuming he makes their opening roster on Monday, he’ll give them some extra physicality for games that he’s in the lineup.
Ludvig is in the second and final season of his two-year, two-way deal. The agreement pays $775K in the NHL and $150K should he make it to the minors. He’ll be a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration eligibility if he plays in 47 games or more. Otherwise, he’ll qualify for Group Six unrestricted free agency.
Waiver Wire: 10/4/24
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
Boston Bruins
G Michael DiPietro
F Vinni Lettieri
D Jordan Oesterle
Florida Panthers
Los Angeles Kings
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
Toronto Maple Leafs
Washington Capitals
Waiver Wire: 10/3/24
All 12 players placed on waivers yesterday passed through unclaimed, Chris Johnston of The Athletic and TSN reports. PuckPedia relays that 17 new names hit the wire today for teams to claim over the next 24 hours:
Calgary Flames
F Walker Duehr
F Dryden Hunt
D Jarred Tinordi
Florida Panthers
F Rasmus Asplund
D Tobias Björnfot
F Zac Dalpe
D Jaycob Megna
Nashville Predators
Seattle Kraken
Toronto Maple Leafs
Utah Hockey Club
F Andrew Agozzino
D Patrik Koch
F Ben McCartney
Winnipeg Jets
F Axel Jonsson-Fjällby
D Simon Lundmark
F Mason Shaw
F Dominic Toninato
Waiver Wire: 10/2/24
Twelve new faces were placed on waivers Wednesday, per PuckPedia. All who were waived yesterday cleared, aside from goaltender Jiří Patera, who’s heading from Vancouver to Boston. Here’s the listing of today’s players who hit the wire:
Carolina Hurricanes
Colorado Avalanche
D Jack Ahcan
F Matthew Phillips
D Calle Rosén
Columbus Blue Jackets
New York Rangers
Pittsburgh Penguins
D Mac Hollowell
F Jimmy Huntington
F Marc Johnstone
Philadelphia Flyers
San Jose Sharks
Bruins Claim Jiří Patera From Canucks
The Bruins have claimed goaltender Jiří Patera off waivers from the Canucks, PuckPedia reports.
Patera is the only player out of 28 who were waived yesterday to be claimed. The 25-year-old reached Group VI UFA status this summer with only eight career NHL appearances under his belt with the Golden Knights.
Patera signed a two-year, two-way deal in Vancouver to initially serve as their No. 3 option behind Thatcher Demko and Arturs Silovs, but he’d slipped to fourth on the depth chart after they signed Kevin Lankinen late in the summer. He was still projected to start the season as their third-stringer, with Demko set to start the year on the shelf with a continuing knee injury, but became more expandable with the veteran Lankinen in the fold.
It’s still a blow to Vancouver’s thinning goalie depth and a boon for the Bruins, who add some insurance between the pipes with RFA Jeremy Swayman still likely to be unsigned by the time their season opener rolls around next week. It’s now a two-man competition between Patera and 26-year-old Brandon Bussi, who also requires waivers, to start the year as Joonas Korpisalo‘s backup. They’ll now choose which name to expose to the wire before opening night.
Given their similar ages, Bussi is probably the higher-ceiling option for the B’s. He has a strong .918 SV% in 78 AHL games with Providence over the past three years, although he’s yet to make his NHL debut. Patera has worse but still solid career AHL numbers with a .907 SV% through 85 appearances, and his brief NHL action with Vegas was fine – a .902 mark with a 3.57 GAA through seven starts and one relief appearance over the past two years.
Suppose Boston keeps Bussi as the backup to open the season and places Patera on waivers again to try and pass him to Providence. In that case, the Canucks can re-claim him and send him directly to their AHL affiliate in Abbotsford if they’re the only team to submit a claim.
If the Bruins decide/manage to retain Patera, it’s a solid move to acquire some experienced goalie depth for not just this season but the next one, too. Vancouver likely hoped the second year of the two-way pact would dissuade teams from making a claim, but it didn’t work out that way.
Waiver Wire: 10/1/24
28 players hit the waiver wire Tuesday, per PuckPedia. It’s a sharp increase from yesterday’s 12 names as more veterans are assigned to the minors later in camp. All of yesterday’s waived players cleared, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. Today’s waiver placements are as follows:
Anaheim Ducks
Buffalo Sabres
F Joshua Dunne
F Mason Jobst
F Brett Murray
D Colton Poolman
D Jack Rathbone
G Felix Sandström
Calgary Flames
Edmonton Oilers
G Collin Delia
D Ben Gleason
D Philip Kemp
F Lane Pederson
Los Angeles Kings
Minnesota Wild
New York Rangers
F Anton Blidh
G Louis Domingue
D Casey Fitzgerald
D Brandon Scanlin
Seattle Kraken
F Brandon Biro
F Max McCormick
F Ben Meyers
D Gustav Olofsson
F Mitchell Stephens
G Ales Stezka
Vancouver Canucks
F Phillip Di Giuseppe
G Jiří Patera
F Nathan Smith
D Christian Wolanin