Panthers Place Josh Davies On Unconditional Waivers
Feb. 6: Davies passed through waivers and is now a free agent, per Friedman.
Feb. 5: The Panthers placed forward prospect Josh Davies on unconditional waivers Thursday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. He’ll have his contract terminated and become an unrestricted free agent tomorrow after he clears.
Davies, 21, walks away from his entry-level contract less than two seasons in. He was a sixth-round pick out of the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos in 2022 and, after inking his ELC in December 2023, turned pro before last season. In over a year and a half in Florida’s ranks, though, he’s yet to record a point at the AHL level.
Davies played just 18 games for Charlotte last season, posting no scoring stats and 27 penalty minutes with a -8 rating. He’s seen no AHL time this season and has instead played exclusively with ECHL Savannah, where he has eight goals and 12 points in 31 games. He also had 16 points in 34 games for the Ghost Pirates last season as a rookie.
Now, the heavy-hitting 5’10” winger will look to catch on elsewhere, presumably on a minor-league deal with such a limited high-end track record in the pros. He was a decent scorer in juniors, totaling 78 goals and 140 points across 204 WHL games, but he hasn’t been able to take the next step.
Florida’s contract count will drop to 45 tomorrow, leaving them with five open spots nearing the trade deadline.
Three Players Placed On Unconditional Waivers
Feb. 4: All three cleared and are now unrestricted free agents, per Friedman. Larsson has already found his new home in Sweden with Leksands IF, Expressen reports.
Feb. 3: Three players from around the league won’t be back with their current clubs after the Olympic break. The Panthers’ Ryan McAllister, the Penguins’ Filip Larsson, and the Blues’ Samuel Johannesson were placed on unconditional waivers today for the purposes of contract terminations, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.
McAllister, 24, will become an unrestricted free agent midway through a trying season. The Ontario native took a rare development path, inking his entry-level contract with Florida as an undrafted free agent in 2023 after just one season in college at Western Michigan. He’d erupted for 49 points in 39 games as a freshman, so making the jump to the pros wasn’t completely out of the blue.
The 5’10” pivot has never landed an NHL recall, but he’d put together some promising seasons in Charlotte – when healthy. He had 19 points in 37 games as a first-year pro in 2023-24 and averaged nearly a point per game last year, although he was available for only 16 games.
It seems whatever ailed him last year has made him a more limited threat this year. He had two goals and seven points with a -5 rating in 15 games to begin the year with Charlotte before the Panthers bumped him down to ECHL Savannah for the first time last month. He’s suited up twice, recording one assist and a -1 rating.
McAllister’s 0.64 points per game average in the AHL indicates he should be able to catch on somewhere else quickly, whether that’s on an AHL deal elsewhere to finish out the season or to join a pro team in Europe for the stretch run.
Larsson, 27, seems a sure bet to head back home to Sweden. He was a sixth-round pick by the Red Wings back in 2016 and had a one-year run with them in the AHL after coming out of college before being loaned back to Europe in 2020. He remained there until Detroit non-tendered him following the expiry of his entry-level deal.
Larsson later broke out as a top-tier starter in the Swedish Hockey League in 2023-24, racking up a .920 SV% and 1.93 GAA with five shutouts in 28 games. That put him back on the NHL radar, and the Penguins inked him to a two-year, two-way deal.
The Stockholm native was a good minor-league backup last season, notching a .910 SV% and 12-9-3 record in 26 showings for AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He’s barely gotten any playing time this season behind youngsters Joel Blomqvist and Sergey Murashov, though, appearing just nine times. He hasn’t been terribly effective when dressed, either, throwing up a .876 SV% and 3.51 GAA.
Johannesson could also be on his way back to Sweden alongside Larsson. St. Louis signed the 25-year-old righty in 2024 out of Örebro HK. He was a 2020 draft pick by the Blue Jackets, but his exclusive signing rights with Columbus had expired.
The offensive-minded righty has been a valuable puck-mover for their minor-league affiliate in Springfield, but hasn’t shown the defensive utility necessary to earn a look at the next level. After putting up 32 points in 66 games last season, his output has dropped to 11 points in 26 games in 2025-26. He hasn’t been in Springfield’s lineup since mid-January, either, mostly due to his -20 rating.
Canadiens To Reassign Sammy Blais
Feb. 4: Blais cleared waivers and can now be assigned to Laval, per Friedman.
Feb. 3: The Canadiens placed winger Sammy Blais on waivers Tuesday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. He’ll presumably be on his way to AHL Laval tomorrow if he clears.
Blais has been an increasingly rare inclusion in Montreal’s lineup. He ended up appearing in 13 straight contests for the club after they recalled him from Laval in December, more than a month after being re-claimed off waivers from the Maple Leafs. He last played on Jan. 15 against the Sabres, though, and has now been in the press box for eight straight.
Even with the risk of losing the 278-game veteran again on waivers, he was the logical candidate to come off the roster as soon as the Habs needed a spot because of how little he’d played as of late. The Quebec native made his first attempt to return home last summer, signing a one-year deal with Montreal in free agency after winning a Calder Cup with AHL Abbotsford. He was one of the Habs’ last cuts from training camp, though, and ended up getting snagged on the wire by Toronto.
Blais only ended up making eight appearances for the Leafs under head coach Craig Berube, under whom he won a Stanley Cup in St. Louis, notching three points and a -2 rating in a fourth-line role. Montreal was the only team to submit a claim for him when he ended up back on waivers around Thanksgiving, so they were able to send him directly to Laval upon getting him back in the organization.
The 6’2″, 205-lb agitator has had plenty of offensive success in the minors and had nine points in nine games in Laval. He found himself back in the NHL a few weeks later when the Habs needed an extra body in the wake of an injury to Jake Evans. He’s hung around since, but with only one game left before the roster freeze, it’s clear they’re doing a bit of advanced planning to ensure they can remove Patrik Laine from IR on the other side of the Olympic break – he’s expected to be all healed from his abdominal surgery by then.
Flames Reassign Justin Kirkland
Feb. 2: Kirkland has cleared waivers, per Friedman. The team later announced he’s been reassigned to Calgary.
Feb. 1: The Calgary Flames have placed forward Justin Kirkland on waivers, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
This is Kirkland’s second waiver placement of the year, as he was also waived in November. Kirkland has been on the Flames’ NHL roster since mid-December, serving largely as a spare forward option. He’s played 20 NHL games this season and has been a healthy scratch for eight, including yesterday.
In the 20 contests he was dressed for, Kirkland managed one goal and two points across 9:49 time on ice per game. He also managed to play a role on the Flames’ penalty kill, averaging nearly two minutes per game of short-handed ice time.
At the AHL level, Kirkland has been a steady top-six scoring option for the Flames’ affiliates, both when they were based in Stockton and now Calgary. Kirkland, who joined the Flames organization in 2019-20, has five goals and seven points in 14 AHL contests this season and had 30 points in 43 AHL games last year.
While there are some qualities that would suggest Kirkland is a candidate to be claimed — namely, the fact that he can play center and has played on an NHL penalty kill with some regularity — it seems more likely he’ll once again clear waivers. The fact that he’s set to make $900K this year as an owner of a one-way contract increases the likelihood that teams pass on claiming him.
While it’s certainly not impossible he gets claimed, largely for those aforementioned reasons, the most likely outcome is that Kirkland will remain in the organization he’s contributed to for the entirety of the 2020s.
Oilers To Reassign Calvin Pickard
Feb. 2: Pickard cleared waivers, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Feb. 1: The Edmonton Oilers announced today that netminder Calvin Pickard has been placed on waivers, presumably for the purposes of reassignment to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.
Taking the move at face value, it appears Pickard has lost his place in the Oilers’ crease as a result of the emergence of Connor Ingram. Ingram made his first appearance with the Oilers in late December and, since joining their NHL roster, has posted a .901 save percentage and a 2.55 goals-against average. Those numbers are a significant step up from what Pickard was offering the Oilers this season, as the veteran has just an .871 save percentage across 16 games. Among goalies with 10 or more games played this season, Pickard’s .871 save percentage ranks inside the bottom ten.
But while Pickard’s 2025-26 season has been a struggle, it’s still somewhat surprising to see him land on waivers. He was a reliable backup for the club in each of the last two seasons, even appearing in a total of 13 playoff contests across the team’s back-to-back runs to the Stanley Cup Final. Pickard managed a 7-1 record in last season’s playoffs.
With the Oilers, like most teams, unlikely to have much of an appetite to carry three healthy goalies on their active roster, Pickard was the odd man out of Edmonton’s goalie picture. Mid-season trade acquisition Tristan Jarry has struggled mightily since arriving in Edmonton, but seeing as the Oilers have $5.375MM committed to Jarry for an additional two years after this one, it’s understandable that they’d want to give Jarry the priority to keep his NHL roster spot over Pickard.
As for whether Pickard might end up claimed, it seems entirely dependent on how much stock rival teams will place in his performance this season, weighed against his play over the past two years. There does not appear to be an abundance of avenues for goaltending-needy teams to find upgrades. Because of how reliable Pickard was in 2023-24 and 2024-25, he likely stands a strong chance of being claimed.
Rangers Claim Vincent Iorio Off Waivers From Sharks, Assign Brett Berard To AHL
After moving out Carson Soucy earlier this week, the Rangers have added some young defensive depth. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that New York has claimed defenceman Vincent Iorio off waivers from the Sharks. To make room on the roster, the Rangers announced (Twitter link) that forward Brett Berard has been sent down to AHL Hartford.
The 23-year-old started the season as a depth defenseman with Washington, the team he was originally drafted by in the second round back in 2021. After playing primarily at the AHL level over his first three seasons (with a total of nine NHL appearances during that time), the Capitals rostered him to start this year in a reserve role, worried about losing him on waivers. Sure enough, that’s what happened soon after as San Jose scooped him up in mid-October amidst some injuries to their back end.
Iorio was in and out of the lineup with the Sharks. He played regularly after being claimed but after a couple of weeks, he was in the press box. Eventually, he agreed to a conditioning stint in the minors with the Barracuda and was productive, tallying seven assists in just six games with them. Upon being recalled in late November, Iorio returned to somewhat of a regular role until recently as he has been scratched for the last two weeks. Overall, Iorio has played in 21 games this season with San Jose, notching three assists and 32 blocked shots while averaging 16:30 per night of playing time.
While the Sharks likely would have liked to have kept Iorio around, a roster crunch forced their hand. With the pending returns of Philipp Kurashev and Shakir Mukhamadullin today following their IR activations per a team announcement (plus Kiefer Sherwood not too far behind), San Jose needed a roster spot and Iorio was the one who lost his. Once Sherwood is activated, another spot will need to be cleared up as well.
Meanwhile, with the Rangers embarking on some form of retool in the coming weeks, they will be moving out more pieces before the trade deadline in March. This claim will allow them to get a look at a young defender in Iorio to assess if he can be part of their plans moving forward while also giving them insurance should any other blueliners be moved. He’s in the final season of his entry-level contract, one that carries a cap hit of just over $814K, and will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer.
As for Berard, he was only recalled on Tuesday and got into one game while up with the big club, bringing his season total to 13. He’s still looking for his first point of the season, however. The 23-year-old has six goals and a dozen assists in 30 games with the Wolf Pack and will get a chance to return to a bigger role with them after averaging just 10:33 per night with the Rangers.
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.