The start of the 2015-2016 hockey season is almost here, and that means teams are starting to assign players to their American Hockey League affiliates, releasing players from PTO’s, and putting waiver eligible players through the waiver wire to (hopefully) assign them to the AHL.
Today the Red Wings placed goaltender Thomas McCollum on waivers and teams will have until noon tomorrow to claim him, or he’ll be assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins.
The Red Wings placed goalie Tom McCollum on waivers today. If he clears by noon tomorrow he’ll be assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins.
— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) October 1, 2015
The Wings will have several other players to place on waivers before the start of the season in order to be roster compliant. You can see on the Depth & Waivers Chart that the Wings have 6 forwards too many on the roster, not counting Datsyuk who’s on IR until late November, who will have to clear waivers to be sent to Grand Rapids. Baring a trade on defense, at least one defenseman (presumably Brian Lashoff) will also have to clear waivers to be sent to GR.
The Wings already cut 10 players and assigned them to Grand Rapids last week and they have until next Wednesday, the start of the NHL regular season, to be both cap and roster compliant. If a team picks someone off the waiver wire, they have to keep that player on their NHL roster for at least 30 days, so if you’re trying to sneak players through waivers, now is the time to do it; when every team has too many players and most of them are healthy.
McCollum is the first for the Red Wings, but he won’t be the last.
