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Capitals Place Vincent Iorio On Waivers

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The Capitals have placed defenseman Vincent Iorio on waivers for the purpose of reassignment to AHL Hershey, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet relays Wednesday afternoon. Iorio’s active roster spot will likely go to fellow rearguard Dylan McIlrath, who’s expected to come off injured reserve later this week, head coach Spencer Carbery said (via Katie Adler of Russian Machine Never Breaks).

Iorio, 23 next month, was a second-round pick by the Capitals in 2021 and made his NHL debut with Washington in 2022-23. He’s only made nine NHL appearances in the years since, none of which came last season. In those nine games, the 6’4″ righty has managed an assist with a +1 rating while recording six blocks and five hits. He averaged just 11:20 per game but was looking to advance the puck, posting 18 shot attempts and getting half of them through on goal. His raw possession metrics weren’t promising, only controlling 41.8% of shot attempts at even strength despite seeing advantageous offensive zone deployment.

Waiver-eligible for the first time this year, Iorio brings an intriguing profile to the wire. He made Washington’s opening night roster as a healthy extra – and presumably the Caps felt they had a greater chance of sneaking him through if they avoided waiving him during the late-preseason rush. His recent minor-league performance, though, offers insight into why they’re comfortable taking the chance of losing him. His offense hasn’t developed since turning pro three years ago, recording around 20 points in 65 appearances each year. He had a 5-15–20 scoring line in 67 games in 2024-25 with a career-worst -4 rating. Should he clear successfully, he’ll be looking to build on those numbers in Year 4 in Hershey.

He’ll make way for McIlrath, who continues to stick around on Washington’s NHL roster. The past couple of years have been a rebirth for the former top-10 pick, who spent the bulk of his prime in the minors and was even Hershey’s captain from 2022-24 but stuck with the Caps’ top group all of last season. He was used sparingly as a No. 7/8 rearguard, recording two assists in 17 appearances, but that was still the most time at the top level he’d seen since making a career-high 34 appearances for the Rangers way back in 2015-16. The 33-year-old is effectively Washington’s enforcer and has 161 career penalty minutes in 92 games since making his NHL debut in 2013-14.

Panthers Claim Donovan Sebrango

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The Panthers have claimed left-shot defenseman Donovan Sebrango off waivers from the Senators, Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports. Their active roster is full, so they must make a corresponding transaction.

Sebrango, 23, has just four games of NHL experience. All of them have come with the Senators this calendar year, making two appearances in 2024-25 and playing in their first two games of this season. He hasn’t been involved on the scoresheet, going pointless with a -2 rating and one hit while averaging 12:46 of ice time per game. Ottawa controlled 51.1% of shot attempts while he was on the ice at even strength despite two-thirds of his shifts starting in the defensive end, which are some promising early results.

This is Sebrango’s first season being waiver-eligible. Florida will be his third organization. He was a third-round pick by the Red Wings in 2020, but only recorded AHL and ECHL time in the Detroit organization before being sent to Ottawa in 2023 in the Alex DeBrincat deal. He’s a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights after signing a two-way contract to return to the Sens late in the offseason.

The intrigue with Sebrango lies in his minor-league progression. En route to working his way onto Ottawa’s opening night roster for 2025-26, the 6’2″ lefty had a career year on the farm with Belleville last season. He served as an alternate captain for the AHL club with an 8-12–20 scoring line in 50 games. The hard-hitting rearguard also had 79 PIMs and a -4 rating.

There’s no coincidence that Florida’s claim lines up with their announcement earlier today that Dmitry Kulikov will be out through the trade deadline after undergoing shoulder surgery on a torn labrum. Sebrango will now get a crack at competing for Kulikov’s vacant spot on the left side of the Cats’ bottom pairing with Jeff Petry. Uvis Balinskis has that role for now after starting the season in the press box and appearing in all but six regular-season games for Florida last year, though, so he isn’t walking in uncontested.

Senators Place Donovan Sebrango On Waivers

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The Senators have placed defenseman Donovan Sebrango on waivers, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. That opens a roster spot for winger Drake Batherson, who’s ticketed to come off IR before tomorrow’s game, meaning they don’t necessarily have to place Brady Tkachuk immediately on IR following today’s news that he’ll miss at least a month with an injury to his right wrist.

Sebrango, 23, is in his third season with the Sens organization. He was acquired from the Red Wings in 2023’s Alex DeBrincat trade. He split his first year between the AHL and ECHL before rocketing up Ottawa’s depth chart in 2024-25, serving as an alternate captain for AHL Belleville while even securing a handful of recalls and his NHL debut.

He had a strong enough training camp to work his way onto Ottawa’s opening roster submission and was even in their opening night lineup over offseason trade pickup Jordan Spence. The Sens have been carrying eight defensemen this year, and Sebrango, a lefty, earned a spot with most of his organizational depth competitors being righties. In his four NHL appearances over the last several months, though, he hasn’t shown much. He’s got no points, a -2 rating, no blocks, and one hit while averaging 12:46 per game. For someone who doesn’t provide much offense and has had poor relative possession impacts in his pair of outings this year, that lack of physicality is a sinker. The Sens ended up scratching Sebrango for yesterday’s loss, allowing Spence to make his season debut.

Sebrango was a fine point producer in juniors. The pandemic forced him to make an early jump to pro hockey in Detroit’s system, likely stunting his development. He seemed to get things on track in the minors last year after a few years of bouncing between leagues, managing a career-best 8-12–20 scoring line in 50 games.

He’ll now be available for anyone to claim over the next 24 hours. He sat as a restricted free agent for most of the offseason before signing a two-way deal in September. He costs $775K against the cap, makes $140K in the minors, and will be an RFA next summer with arbitration eligibility. That latter part could serve as a claim deterrent.

Sharks’ Jack Thompson, Lucas Carlsson Clear Waivers

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Oct. 13th: According to Friedman, both players have made it through waivers unscathed. The Sharks quickly shared that they’ve reassigned both defensemen.

Oct. 12th: Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet mentioned today a pair of Sharks defenders who find themselves on waivers: Lucas Carlsson and Jack Thompson. 

As the organization goes through its hardcore rebuilding phase, there has been a revolving door on the back end for San Jose. However, GM Mike Grier was very busy last offseason adding veterans headlined by Dmitry Orlov, John Klingberg, Nick Leddy, among others. Unlike a forward group which is full of high-end youngsters, San Jose offers just Sam Dickinson and Shakir Mukhamadullin as the only true young, high-upside defensemen on the roster at this point, as the rest are more established veterans, perhaps who could be flipped at the deadline come spring. 

With this in mind, it appears Carlsson and Thompson have become expendable as the Sharks have seemed to move on from the two who were both in the lineup at times last season. 

Carlsson, 28, was signed as a free agent in 2024. A once intriguing prospect of the Blackhawks and Panthers, the Swede has been extremely productive in the AHL, including a 20-goal effort in 2022-23 with the Charlotte Checkers. However, as many others have found themselves, Carlsson has not managed to carved out a role in the NHL since 2021-22, where he played 40 games as a Florida Panther. It is not highly likely Carlsson will be claimed, and perhaps the San Jose Barracuda will be relieved to have a big contributor back. 

Thompson, on the other hand, could bring some intrigue as a 23-year-old right-hander with two-way potential. Originally drafted 93rd overall in 2020 by Tampa Bay, the Ontario native was sent to the Sharks in the Anthony Duclair trade, after putting up strong numbers with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. Thompson posted 10 points in 31 NHL games last season, albeit on a 50-loss team. Several teams could have their eyes on Thompson, including Tampa Bay, who could bring their prospect back in with open arms. It is interesting that the Sharks have opted to keep much older reclamation projects on their back end, than the young player who has legitimate untapped potential.  

Jets Reassign David Gustafsson

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Oct. 10: Gustafsson cleared waivers and will head to the AHL, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Oct. 9: The Jets will place forward David Gustafsson on waivers today, head coach Scott Arniel said (via Murat Ates of The Athletic). He’ll be designated as a non-roster player in the interim to make room for Jonathan Toews, who was placed on injured reserve at the beginning of the week but is being activated before tonight’s home opener. It’s the first time in Gustafsson’s seven-year career in North America that he’s been exposed to the wire.

Winnipeg could have easily ferried waiver-exempt prospects Parker Ford or Brad Lambert to AHL Manitoba instead, so seeing them instead risk losing Gustafsson on waivers is a notable development. Neither Ford nor Lambert is projected to be in tonight’s lineup, but they’ve now both broken camp with the Jets in earnest alongside fellow youngster Nikita Chibrikov.

Gustafsson, 25, has been a sound two-way depth piece but never developed offensively as Winnipeg hoped for when selecting him in the second round of the 2018 draft. He’s never pushed his way above a 13th/14th forward role and has only averaged 25 appearances per year over his six NHL campaigns. He’s been a non-factor on the scoresheet as a result, never scoring more than three goals or seven points in a season. Over the last three years, only 13 forwards with at least 100 games played have produced a lower points per game than Gustafsson’s 0.157 clip.

Of course, no one will produce many points when their ice time is as limited as Gustafsson’s is. He averaged 8:59 per game last year, and that’s 11 seconds above his career average. He does carry value as a fourth-line fill-in down the middle due to his faceoff acumen, boasting a 51.2% success rate in 689 career trips to the dot. He also had impressive possession impacts last season, controlling 51.0% of shot attempts at even strength despite 74.4% of his zone starts coming in the defensive end.

If he clears waivers, he’ll head to Manitoba. He hasn’t seen AHL ice since recording three assists in six games on a conditioning stint in the 2023-24 season. His last full-time assignment to the Moose was in 2021-22, when he put together a respectable 15-15–30 scoring line in 47 games.

Blues Reassign Georgi Romanov

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Oct. 9: Romanov has cleared waivers and will be assigned to Springfield, according to Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.

Oct. 8: The Blues have signed goaltender Georgi Romanov to a two-way deal, the team announced. He’ll be reporting to AHL Springfield, but he needs to clear waivers first. Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports confirms he landed on the wire today. He had been in training camp with the Devils on a PTO, and while they never confirmed they released him, today’s news solidifies it.

Romanov is entering his seventh professional season and his third in North America. The Russian netminder signed with the Sharks as an undrafted free agent in 2023 after putting together a strong resume with Gornyak-UGMK in the second-tier VHL, only getting one game of top-flight KHL action with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg before making the jump. He enjoyed brief call-ups to San Jose in each of his two years there but was not given a qualifying offer this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

The 25-year-old brings six career starts and four relief appearances to the Blues’ pipeline. He fared as expected in them for a rookie netminder behind a league-worst team, going 0-6-0 but posting a respectable .888 SV% and 3.53 GAA while cumulatively allowing 3.5 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck.

Romanov did well at the AHL level, posting a 3.12 GAA and a .904 SV% with a 20-15-13 record in 50 appearances for the San Jose Barracuda over the past two years. He looks to slot in as the new AHL starter and No. 3 goalie on St. Louis’ depth chart. The club lost Colten Ellis, who logged a .922 SV% in 42 games for AHL Springfield last season, on waivers to the Sabres earlier this week.

Hurricanes Waive, Assign Juha Jaaska

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The Carolina Hurricanes placed centerman Juha Jaaska on waivers on Tuesday. He cleared waivers on Wednesday, and will be assigned to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, per NHL.com’s Walt Ruff.

Jaaska spent the majority of the 2024-25 season in the Chicago lineup. It was his first year in North American pros after playing in Finland’s Liiga from 2017 to 2024. Jaaska made quick work of the rookie year, earning an alternate captain role on the Wolves and posting 12 goals and 33 points in 53 games. His scoring ranked fifth on the Wolves and would have rivaled the top-30 in league-wide rookie scoring, though at 26, Jaaska was excluded from rookie counts.

Still, his debut year in Chicago was a promising one. It came as no surprise for those who followed the bulky winger’s career in Finland. He has long been lauded as a leader for his clubs, and wore a letter in all five years he spent with HIFK’s junior program. That includes captaining the U20 team in 2016-17 – his first year of draft eligibility – when he scored 24 points in 25 games in Finland’s top U20 league.

Despite the hot scoring, Jaaska’s struggles to match pace at the top level held back a lot of NHL attention. Those concerns continued through his final two years of draft eligibility, leaving Jaaska to pursue HIFK’s men’s team rather than a move to North America. That proved a fruitful decision, as the Helsinki-native began to claw his way up the lineup between 2018 and 2023. He showed his might at the pro level with 12 goals, 37 points, and a plus-14 in 56 games of the 2022-23 season; then matched that performance with 30 points and a plus-four in 57 games of the 2023-24 season. He wore an ’A’ in both seasons.

Those performances were enough to earn Jaaska a spot on Finland’s World Championship roster, and a contract with the Carolina Hurricanes. In addition to a prominent role on the Chicago Wolves, Jaaska also made his NHL debut last season, and totaled four assists in 18 games with the Hurricanes. Now, he’ll return to his role of alternate captain for the Wolves, with the goal of improving on a strong push into North America. With the right start to the season, or a few injuries ahead of him on the depth chart, Jaaska could quickly find his way into routine minutes on Carolina’s fourth-line.

Ducks’ Ville Husso Clears Waivers

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10/8: Husso has cleared waivers per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. That will open the door for Husso to take on the starting role for the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. He has posted 66 wins and a .909 save percentage in 152 career appearances in the AHL.

10/7: The Anaheim Ducks have placed goaltender Ville Husso on waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The move cuts the Ducks roster to two goalies – Lukas Dostal and Petr Mrazek – with a few days left before opening night. Anaheim signed Husso to a two-year, $4.4MM contract extension in late June. Should he make it to the minor leagues, he would only carry a $1.05MM hit against Anaheim’s cap.

It’s no surprise to see Husso back on the waiver wire. He was waived by the Detroit Red Wings almost exactly one year ago, after starting their season with a 1-5-2 record and .866 save percentage in nine games. He moved to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and started to bounce back, marked by an 8-4-0 record and .912 save percentage in 13 games.

That was enough to catch the eye of a Ducks, who had lost goalie prospects Calle Clang and Tomas Suchanek to knee injuries. Anaheim acquired Husso in exchange for future considerations in February, and initially kept him in the minor-leagues. He suited up for nine games with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, posting seven wins and a team-best .907 save percentage. When Anaheim lost John Gibson to injury in March and April, Husso stood as their go-to call-up, helping him push into four games at the end of Anaheim’s season. Husso was surprisingly sharp in the small sample, posting a .925 save percentage – higher than any of his prior seasons in the NHL.

With stout play at both levels, Anaheim opted to sign Husso to a more manageable cap hit this summer. Speaking about the deal, and about trading Gibson to Detroit, Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek told Derek Lee of The Hockey News that Husso offers a helpful bit of veteran reliability. He said:

If we have any injuries up top, it allows to be able to call that third goaltender up to support (Dostal or Mrazek). It also allows San Diego to have a good goaltender to carry a lot of the load and allow our younger guys to keep maturing

Goalies have been a popular commodity on the waiver wire. Each of Pheonix Copley, Cayden Primeau, and Colten Ellis have already been claimed by new teams. That means there’s no guarantee that Husso will fall through 31 other teams. If he does, he’ll be the clear starter for the San Diego Gulls, operating ahead of Suchanek and Clang.

Mammoth Waive Kevin Rooney, Assign To AHL

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10/8: Rooney has cleared waivers and will be assigned to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners.

10/7: The Utah Mammoth have placed centerman Kevin Rooney on waivers. He signed a one-year, two-way contract with the club this summer. The deal moved Rooney away from three years with the Calgary Flames organization.

Rooney was on the Flames’ roster for the entirety of the 2024-25 season. He filled a true fourth-line role, and posted just 10 points in 70 games on the full year. Despite that, Rooney was routinely rotated onto the team’s penalty-kill, and his 47.2 faceoff percentage ranked third among all Flames centers to take at least 400 draws.

Rooney pulled his way back into an NHL role after spending the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons split between the NHL and AHL lineups. He totaled five points in 50 NHL games and 18 points in 56 AHL games between the two years. Before then, he found routine play in the Metropolitan Division, serving as a depth center for the New Jersey Devils, and then the New York Rangers, between 2016 and 2022. Through his career, Rooney has posted 60 points and 134 penalty minutes in 330 NHL appearances and 93 points and 156 penalty minutes in 242 AHL games.

An assignment to the minor-leagues comes as no surprise after Rooney signed a two-way deal. It would be a surprise to see a team claim the low-event center, only to be forced to hold him on their NHL roster or place him back on waivers. Instead, it seems more likely that Rooney will clear waivers and serve as the Tucson Roadrunners’ reliable veteran, until the Mammoth are in need of a call-up.

Sabres’ Alexandar Georgiev Clears Waivers

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10/8: Georgiev has cleared waivers for the Sabres, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He will head to the AHL’s Rochester Americans, per Chad DeDominicis of Expected Buffalo. DeDominicis points out that Georgiev will become the fourth goalie on Rochester’s lineup, likely prompting another move or demotion to the ECHL for one of the quartet.

10/7: The Sabres will be placing goaltender Alexandar Georgiev on waivers today, head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters (including Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald).

Georgiev was listed on Buffalo’s opening night roster yesterday, but they were carrying three goalies after claiming Colten Ellis off waivers from the Blues. The Sabres value the latter more, with Ruff telling Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News that Ellis is someone the Sabres have been “really high on” for quite some time and were unwilling to pass up the opportunity to have him on the wire. As a result, Georgiev won’t be starting the season with the club and will head to AHL Rochester should he clear waivers.

Georgiev, 29, finished top 10 in Vezina Trophy voting as recently as 2022-23 but is now scrambling to find an NHL job. He made 49 appearances last year between the Avalanche and the Sharks, heading to San Jose in the midseason deal that sent Mackenzie Blackwood the other way. Among goalies with at least 30 starts, no one had a worse save percentage or GAA than Georgiev’s marks of .875 and 3.71, and that includes making over a third of his appearances behind a dominant group of Colorado skaters in the first half of the year.

He still has roughly league-average numbers for his career. Since debuting with the Rangers in the 2017-18 season, he’s logged a 151-108-26 record with 15 shutouts, a 2.99 GAA, and a .903 SV% in 303 appearances. He’s allowed 21.1 goals (4%) more than the average netminder during that time. It’s his last two seasons of work that have soured teams. Despite posting a league-leading 38 wins for the Avs in 2023-24, he only managed a .897 SV% in 63 appearances. That preceded a 2024-25 campaign where only the Flyers’ Samuel Ersson posted a worse goals saved above expected figure than Georgiev’s -17.9, according to MoneyPuck.

That three-goalie figure from yesterday doesn’t include starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who begins the season on injured reserve after suffering a lower-body injury late in preseason. That’s a different injury from the one he showed up to camp with, which was the motivator for Buffalo to sign Georgiev to a one-year, $825K deal last month in the first place. Luukkonen has improved in the past few days, according to Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550, although he still carries a week-to-week designation. Buffalo certainly wasn’t going to carry four goalies after he returned, so it’s no surprise to see them get ahead of the wheel and remove one from their active roster now – especially after Georgiev allowed 11 goals on 74 shots in four preseason games for a .851 SV% and 4.19 GAA.

The Sabres might very well carry three goalies when Lukkonen returns, though. It’s hard to see them risk losing Ellis on waivers unless he struggles in his first taste of NHL action. The club also signed Alex Lyon to a two-year, $3MM deal in free agency over the offseason to be Luukkonen’s primary backup option. He might have an easier time passing through waivers thanks to his $1.5MM cap hit, so if Buffalo does want to only carry the traditional pair, Lyon might end up hitting the wire, too.

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