A Flames waiver wire primer for 2020-21
By Ryan Pike
3 years agoAlong with every other NHL club, the Calgary Flames are required to file a salary cap compliant roster with the league office by 3 p.m. MT on Jan. 12. Part of how the Flames will get down to an opening night roster is the waiver wire.
Here’s a quick and dirty primer of how things look waiver-wise for 2020-21.
What are waivers?
Simply put, waivers are teams asking the other 30 NHL clubs if they’d like to keep one of their players on the NHL roster before they send them down to the AHL. It’s like asking everyone else in your house if they want the last piece of pizza before you just eat it yourself.
Generally speaking, skaters are waiver eligible after their entry level deals have expired, while goaltenders get an extra season after their ELCs. There are exceptions, but that’s the general rule.
Waiver priority is based on the prior season’s standings for the first quarter of the regular season (in reverse order), while for the remainder of the season it’s based on the current season’s standings.
Waivers required
Players who require waivers cannot be assigned to the AHL (or taxi squad) from NHL without clearing waivers. But once they clear waivers, they can spend 30 days cumulatively on an NHL roster before needing waivers again.
- Goalies Louis Domingue, Jacob Markstrom and David Rittich
- Defensemen Rasmus Andersson, Mark Giordano, Noah Hanifin, Oliver Kylington, Nikita Nesterov, Alex Petrovic and Chris Tanev
- Forwards Mikael Backlund, Sam Bennett, Byron Froese, Johnny Gaudreau, Justin Kirkland, Josh Leivo, Elias Lindholm, Milan Lucic, Andrew Mangiapane, Sean Monahan, Joakim Nordstrom, Zac Rinaldo, Buddy Robinson, Derek Ryan, Dominik Simon and Matthew Tkachuk
Waiver exempt
The following players are waiver exempt and can freely be sent to and from the NHL roster and the AHL/taxi squad.
- Goalies Tyler Parsons and Artyom Zagidulin
- Defensemen Carl-Johan Lerby, Connor Mackey, Colton Poolman, Juuso Valimaki and Alexander Yelesin
- Forwards Dillon Dube, Glenn Gawdin, Emilio Pettersen, Matthew Phillips, Luke Philp, Martin Pospisil, Adam Ruzicka, Eetu Tuulola and Dmitry Zavgorodniy
Valimaki and Dube are exempt this season and expected to be NHL regulars. If the Flames want to get creative with the taxi squad, they could carry four players on that squad full-time and just float Valimaki and Dube back and forth between games to save cap space. It’s unlikely that they’d do that with both players all season, since both are on expiring contracts and it’s probably worthwhile to keep them happy before negotiations, but it would give them some salary cap breathing room that they desperately need.
Recent articles from Ryan Pike
- The Calgary Flames’ AHL affiliate has won (at least) one playoff round three seasons running
- Calgary Wranglers to face Coachella Valley Firebirds in second round of AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs – Game 1 & 2 tickets on sale Saturday morning!
- Calgary Flames regional TV broadcasts will be on Sportsnet through 2034-35
