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Nicolas Aube-Kubel Placed On Waivers

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With Kevin Hayes approaching a return to action, the Philadelphia Flyers have placed forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel on waivers. The team does have a roster spot open, but given Hayes will be coming off long-term injured reserve, the Flyers are in a tight cap situation and aren’t able to just add him directly to the group.

Aube-Kubel meanwhile is a legitimate candidate to be claimed, given his relative youth and versatility. The 25-year-old forward has played in seven games so far this season, averaging just under ten minutes a night. A physical presence that is not short on energy, the 2014 second-round pick has 233 hits in 102 career games. That’s only come with 28 points, but given his strong minor league results, there’s at least an argument to be made that he could provide a little more offensive with increased minutes.

One thing that may help him clear however is his contract, which carries a $1.075MM cap hit this season and pays Aube-Kubel $1.225MM in actual salary. There are cheaper options out there for a fourth line, so any team dealing with their own cap restraints may not be able to afford the addition.

If he does clear tomorrow, he’ll be able to return to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, an organization he’s very familiar with. Aube-Kubel has played 229 games for the team since turning pro, scoring 50 goals in the process.

Three Players Clear Waivers

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Nov 12: Comeau and Kero have both cleared waivers, according to Matthew DeFranks of The Dallas Morning News. They can now be assigned to the minor leagues. Grimaldi has also cleared for the Predators.

Nov 11: Chris Johnston of TSN reports that Blake Comeau and Tanner Kero of the Dallas Stars, and Rocco Grimaldi of the Nashville Predators have all been placed on waivers today.

Comeau is clearly the biggest surprise of the three, given his place with the Stars and history in the NHL. The veteran winger has been wearing an “A” as an alternate captain at times this year and has more than 900 games played at the NHL level. Many of those have come with the Stars, who he has been with since 2018, when he signed a three-year, $7.2MM deal with the club in free agency.

Now on a one-year, $1MM contract he signed in June, Comeau’s cap hit will be entirely buried in the minor leagues even though he is a 35+ player. The restrictions on those contracts were changed in the 2020 CBA Memorandum of Understanding, but even before that his one-year deal would have been able to come off the cap if they assign him to the minor leagues.

It’s been years since Comeau was forced to play in the AHL though and it seems as though he and Grimaldi could potentially get claimed, if a team needs an experienced forward. Grimaldi has been a regular for the past three years in Nashville and even scored ten goals in 40 games last season. Kero doesn’t have quite as much experience, but did suit up 39 times for the Stars.

Notably, this is a change for Dallas, who have seemed unable to drag themselves out of the bottom of the Western Conference standings. The team has lost another two games in a row, sit at 4-6-2 on the year, and have a -12 goal differential. The organization has some young players that could potentially inject some energy into the lineup, but Comeau’s placement on waivers still comes as something of a surprise.

Artem Zub Leaves Game With Upper-Body Injury

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Things continue to get worse in terms of the amount of personnel available for the Ottawa Senators. Defenseman Artem Zub left Thursday’s game against Los Angeles with an upper-body injury, and head coach D.J. Smith says there’s “no update” on his status.

Ottawa is already without nine players due to COVID-19 protocol, including defensemen Nikita Zaitsev, Josh Brown, Victor Mete, and Nick Holden. The team is down to just nine healthy defensemen under NHL contracts now, as Jacob Bernard-Docker, Maxence Guenette, and Jonathan Aspirot remain with AHL Belleville.

The team’s depth is stretched extremely thin, as many young players are now getting NHL time sooner than expected. 2019 first-round selection Lassi Thomson made his NHL debut Thursday in place of Zaitsev.

If Zub is to miss any period of time, Bernard-Docker is the obvious choice to come up from Belleville. The 21-year-old right-shot defenseman does not require waivers and got into five games with the Senators at the tail end of last season.

Zub himself was having a great start to the 2021-22 season, notching five assists in 12 games while working his way up to the team’s top pairing with Thomas Chabot. He’s been Ottawa’s most responsible defenseman since joining the team prior to 2020-21, now averaging nearly 23 minutes a night this season.

Leo Komarov Expected To Be Placed On Unconditional Waivers

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In something of a surprise move, Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports that veteran forward Leo Komarov is expected to be on unconditional waivers tomorrow. The move would be to terminate Komarov’s contract, allowing him to return to the KHL where he would join SKA St. Petersburg. Komarov never did report to Bridgeport after being assigned to the AHL, but by terminating his deal it would mean forfeiting the remainder of his $2MM salary for this season.

Importantly, it would also clear Komarov’s entire $3MM cap hit off the books for the Islanders. Assigning him to the AHL only cleared $1.125MM, meaning New York and GM Lou Lamoriello would gain some extra cap space should this termination go through. After trading away Johnny Boychuk’s deal a few days ago, the Islanders are already under the cap and accruing cap space every day. Moving on from Komarov would give them even more cap space and help to accommodate a midseason acquisition.

The simple fact is that Komarov is no longer effective enough to be a full-time option at the NHL level. The 34-year-old forward recorded just 11 points in 52 games last season (regular season and playoffs combined), with only a single goal. While he’s always been a good defensive player and a physical presence, willing to hit just about anything that moves, his time as a realistic NHL option is over. A return to the KHL makes sense at this point, especially if he can recoup at least most of his remaining NHL salary.

Depending on what he signs in the KHL he may be an unrestricted free agent again next summer, but it seems unlikely that we’ll ever see Komarov as a regular in the NHL again. If that’s true, he leaves with 491 career regular season games, 63 goals, 170 points and 1,160 hits.

Snapshots: Eichel, Rask, Hajek

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It didn’t take long for new Golden Knight Jack Eichel to get his way in Vegas. The Associated Press reports that Eichel will undergo his preferred neck surgery, an artificial disc replacement, on Friday. Eichel’s surgical plans for his herniated disc was really the lynchpin topic of the crumbling relationship between Eichel and the Sabres that led to the Buffalo star requesting a trade after nearly a year out of action. While the disc replacement surgery has never been performed on an NHL player before, it is not an unheard of procedure and provides a number of potential benefits that the alternative fusion procedure. Eichel hopes that his saga with the Sabres will pave a path for players to have more input into their healthcare. “I think my situation shined light on maybe some things that could be changed, and I hope that they are in the future,” Eichel said. “I don’t necessarily agree with the team having the full say in what to do with medical treatment. I think it should be a collaboration.” Vegas was willing to acquire Eichel at a sizeable price and still allow him to have the surgery of his choice, an example of a team allowing a player to call the shots in his own rehabilitation.

  • Tuukka Rask was back in action on Monday, skating with – who else – the Boston Bruins. The veteran goaltender is still recovering from offseason hip surgery, but the expectation has always that he would return to his team at some point this season. That return could come sooner rather than later with Rask at Bruins practice today (though still technically a free agent). Rookie Jeremy Swayman and substantial free agent addition Linus Ullmark have played well thus far, combining for a .911 save percentage and a 2.45 GAA, but Boston has maintained that Rask will be welcomed back if he is healthy and able to return. The team clearly feels that the future Hall of Famer has enough left in the tank to improve their play in net for another year.
  • Even before the season began, there were reports that Libor Hajek had lost his starting job in New York and could be on his way out, either by trade or waivers. The first part of that assumption has proven true, as the 23-year-old has not played a game so far this season, yet Hajek is still a member of the Rangers. The team has opted not to test Hajek on waivers, protecting the once-promising blue liner from their competition, but wasting a roster spot and keeping the defenseman cold are not great strategies either. As a result, the team has announced today that Hajek will head down to the AHL’s Hartford Wolfpack on a conditioning stint. Whether this could be precursor to another move involving Hajek remains to be seen, but getting Hajek some game action certainly can’t hurt the Rangers.

Kyle Capobianco, Marian Studenic Clear Waivers

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Nov 8: Both players have cleared waivers and can now be assigned to the minor leagues.

Nov 7: Two names are appearing on NHL waivers Sunday, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The Arizona Coyotes placed defenseman Kyle Capobianco there, while the New Jersey Devils waived forward Marian Studenic.

Capobianco, a 24-year-old who was expected to possibly steal a lineup spot this season, hasn’t played this season as a knee injury has sidelined him. Capobianco was activated from injured reserve today in order to permit the Coyotes to waive him. It appears as though recent call-ups Dysin Mayo and Cam Dineen have now surpassed Capobianco on the team’s depth chart.

The Devils have utilized Studenic in five games this season, but the 23-year-old Slovakian has yet to register a point. He was technically the team’s only extra healthy forward, but they’ve also played Mason Geertsen at forward instead of his usual defense at some points this season. Studenic’s averaged just 11:33 of ice time in those five games.

Both Capobianco and Studenic were younger players that appeared to have the inside track on roster spots heading into the season. It’s entirely possible that a team could choose to take a chance on either one of Capobianco or Studenic.

Injury Notes: O’Reilly, Wild, Schenn

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St. Louis Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly is likely to return to the lineup Sunday night when they take on the Anaheim Ducks, per Blues writer Chris Pinkert. The 30-year-old center missed the team’s last four games while in COVID-19 protocol. He’s likely to return to top-line duties between David Perron as well as Brandon Saad, who’s also missed time while in COVID-19 protocol this season. Prior to departing the lineup, O’Reilly had five points in five games while averaging 19:13 of ice time per game.

Other injury notes from around the league:

Ottawa Senators Assign Filip Gustavsson To AHL

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Per the Ottawa Senators communications department, the team re-assigned goalie Filip Gustavsson to the AHL’s Belleville Senators on Sunday.

The Senators have largely operated with a trio of netminders this season as starter Matt Murray’s health has been an issue at multiple points already so far in the season. But as he returns to full health, the team has opted to send Gustavsson, who does not require waivers, to Belleville.

It’s worth noting that the team currently has an active roster of 22 players and could indeed carry a third goalie as a healthy scratch.

Gustavsson has performed the best out of Ottawa’s three netminders this season with a .911 save percentage through five games played. Neither Murray’s or Anton Forsberg’s save percentage eclipses the .900 mark.

While many believe that the 23-year-old Swede has played himself into a backup or even starting role with Ottawa, the organization continues to value the positional depth, not willing to expose Forsberg to waivers in order to assign him to Belleville.

It’s highly likely that Gustavsson will return to the Ottawa roster at some point this season as he continues what’s been a strong development path since arriving in the Ottawa Senators organization.

New Jersey Devils Recall Alexander Holtz

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With the roster spot available after Scott Wedgewood was claimed off waivers, the New Jersey Devils have recalled top prospect, Alexander Holtz.

It’s been just four games for the Utica Comets this season, but the seventh-overall pick from 2020 has proven the AHL is no match for him. Holtz has five goals in those four contests and has registered 18 shots on net. It was only a matter of time before he found himself up with the NHL club, though there is obviously still plenty to prove at the highest level.

Armed with a lightning-fast release and a blistering shot, Holtz has always found a way to put the puck in the net, even if it does usually take him a little bit of time to adapt to a new level or challenge. In ten games last season with the Binghamton Devils he had just a single goal, but looks to have taken a substantial development step this time around. Now he’ll make the jump to the NHL, where similarly, goals may not come right away, but likely will at some point for the talented youngster.

Unlike in years past though, where the Devils were solely focused on development, this season there is a real push to be a competitive part of the Metropolitan Division. After a brilliant start, the team lost top center Jack Hughes to a shoulder injury and were shut out by the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday. The team generated 28 shots on John Gibson but were unable to find the twine, an easy explanation why Holtz is up to infuse some offensive punch.

Of note, Holtz’ contract is still eligible to slide forward another year should he fail to play in ten games at the NHL level. If the team decides he’s not quite ready after seeing him in action, they can still send him back to the minors and avoid burning the first year of his entry-level deal.

Arizona Coyotes Claim Scott Wedgewood

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The Arizona Coyotes have claimed goaltender Scott Wedgewood off waivers from the New Jersey Devils, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Wedgewood returns to the only other team he has played for in the NHL.

It’s been a few years since Wedgewood played for Arizona, but it actually was the place he received the most opportunity. In 2017-18 he appeared in a career-high 20 games, going 5-9-4 with an .893 save percentage. With the Coyotes dealing with an injury to Carter Hutton, Wedgewood will serve as a veteran backup for Karel Vejmelka, allowing Ivan Prosvetov to return to the minor leagues.

Given the fact that New Jersey has Nico Daws in the minor leagues and two steady options in the NHL, it isn’t the end of the world that they’ve lost Wedgewood. It should give them a bit of stress though, given that there are now only four netminders in the entire organization under NHL contracts. Should they deal with any injuries, they would quickly run out of bodies to fill all of the necessary spots.

Of course, when Hutton returns the Coyotes will likely put Wedgewood back on waivers, where the Devils could reclaim him. The original timeline for Hutton was two to four weeks and he hasn’t played since October 25. At that point, if New Jersey is the only team to put in a claim, they would be able to send Wedgewood directly to the minor leagues.

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