Reilly wants out of Boston and Ottawa stepping up their search for a defensemen plus waiver updates.
Today I give my opinion on some recent Waiver news as well as a few recent trade rumours involving the Bruins and Senators.
Reilly wants out of Boston.
It seems that after being placed on waivers multiple times now and throng sent to the AHL a few times that Mike Reilly has had enough and wants out of Boston and the Bruins with their insufficient amount of cap space and already needing to maybe move a contract in the near future may decide that moving Reilly is the best for the team. Now as I will talk about a little later in the post Reilly was recently placed on waivers for the second time by the Bruins and this time it was because the Bruins don’t have a spot for him right now on their roster as with McAvoy’s return they no longer have the cap space or roster space to give him a NHL spot as they have a strong top 4 and right now Clifton and Zboril are playing better as is Forbort and Stralman is cheaper so with the Bruins needing cap space and Reilly probably not too happy with the current situation for himself I think the Bruins may wind up trading the defensemen. Now I don’t think many teams are thrilled with his contract at a $3 Million dollars for this year and next but I don’t at all think that Reilly is a bad defensemen and I think at least a few teams would be interested in the defensemen even with his contract. Now Reilly can put up points as he showed in his season he split between Ottawa and Boston when he had a combined 27 assists in 55 games with those teams and I think that in the right organization he could still be a good 20-25 point player and I think that the $3 Million is a bit expensive especially for a 3rd pair defensemen but once Forbort comes off of LTIR the Bruins would need to move salary out anyway and given that Reilly cleared waivers twice already the asking price on him wouldn’t be high at all as I would guess right now it would probably be a 3rd or 4th round pick for him so a team who has a bit of cap space or is going through some injuries or a team trying to shake up their blueline in season could want a guy like Reilly and with all the teams who could be looking for some defensive help right now I think that if the Bruins don’t see Reilly coming into the lineup anytime soon then a trade could happen and possibly in the near future.
Chabot injury could speed up the urgency for Ottawa to find a defensemen.
The Senators have been heavily in the market for a defensemen over the offseason and into the season trying to improve a lacklustre blueline and with their best defensemen now going down with a injury they now may be even more hard pressed to find a defensemen in the near future to help their ailing blueline. Now the Sens haven’t had the best start this year as they currently only have 13 points in 17 games and it is really hard to come back when they are so far out of a playoff spot around the US Thanksgiving mark but I think if anyone can make it back it would be Ottawa as they get some pretty goaltending at times and have a lethal forward group but seem to be missing one piece on the blueline from it all clicking and the Senators being a good team and they have been in the market for a defensemen since early in the offseason as they have been linked to a lot of defensemen including Mackenzie Weegar before he was dealt to Calgary and Chychrun in Arizona although with the high asking price and the fact that Chychrun hasn’t been healthy this year yet it sounds like the Senators aren’t to keen on giving up that hefty asking price right now and it seems like they are out on him at least for now and even tonight we found out that the Senators even talked with Vancouver at least a bit about a Myers-Zaitsev swap so there is a lot of speculation around Ottawa’s blueline even bringing former Sen Erik Karlsson back to the Canadian Capital although I think that one probably won’t happen but it does seem like Ottawa is trying very hard to find a improvement for their young D-Core and even though they got Zub back from injury recently they now have their best defender in Chabot out right now so the need for a defensemen has never been higher and I think there are a couple teams who could move a defensemen, if the Sens were looking for a rental they could look at a guy like Klingberg, Gostisbehere or Dumba as all three are good offensive vets who could help the young blueline and you even have guys like Myers in Vancouver, Walker on LA, DeMelo in Winnipeg and Reilly in Boston could all also be longer term and cheaper fits but this is definitely a situation to keep a eye on as the Senators could really benefit from a good top 4 defensemen and they could really use one more addition to try and make this team playoff caliber.
Here is what has happened with the waiver wire from NOV 8th to NOV 10th.
Cleared Waivers
Vegas
Laurent Brossoit G (1 year left $2.33 Million dollars)
Ottawa
Nikita Zaitsev RD (2 years left $4.5 Million dollars)
Boston
Mike Reilly LD (2 years left $3 Million dollars)
Chicago
Dylan Wells G (1 year left $.750 Thousand dollars)
Montreal
Rem Pitlick LW,C (2years left $1.1 Million dollars)
Claimed off of Waivers
Magnus Hellberg G (1 year left $.750 Thousand dollars) was placed on Waivers by the Senators and was claimed back by the Kraken.
Analysis: out of the six players who were placed and either cleared or claimed on waivers during this time frame I don’t think there was actually too many surprises. Now first with Wells I didn’t expect him to be claimed very much as he was the 4th string goalie in Chicago and only was up with the team due to a slew of injuries with the Hawks goaltending and I don’t think he will get much of a NHL chance unless Chicago gets more injured goalie but definitely not surprised he wound up clearing, and I am also not to surprised that Nikita Zaitsev cleared waivers as he is not the good defensemen that he was a few years ago and with his very high cap hit of $4.5 Million for this year and next I would’ve been shellshocked if he was claimed so with most teams probably viewing him as at best a 7th defensemen on their roster I am not at all surprised that he went through waivers without being claimed. Now the other three who cleared I thought had a tiny possibility of being taken but they never were. With Pitlick as I said before I wouldn’t be too surprised if he cleared but I also wouldn’t be shocked if he was claimed but while he is a decent bottom six forward and showed last year he can put up points and is currently stuck behind a deep team I think that even though he has a pretty decent cap hit of $1.1 Million that the second year probably scared off some teams and even though I could’ve seen him go somewhere I am definitely not surprised he was able to clear waivers, with Reilly this was actually the second time he had been placed on waivers this year as it had been more then a month since he was last placed on waivers and after he didn’t get claimed before I really didn’t think he was going to be claimed as his cap hit is a bit much for his role and is signed for both this year and next so due to these facts I didn’t think he was going to be claimed and with so many bodies in front of him on the blueline I think he may wind up being traded as we talked about above, while for Brossoit he was coming off a long term injury and hadn’t gotten into any action for a while, so while his cap hit for what he can bring when he is healthy at $2.33 Million isn’t to bad and he is in the final year of his deal and I could see a team taking a chance on him I am not too surprised that he wound up clearing and that he should show in the AHL he can still be good first before getting a NHL chance again. While the one claim was the Kraken getting back Hellberg from the Senators as Hellberg was placed on waivers during training camp and claimed by Ottawa from Seattle but now that Seattle re-claimed him he can go to the minors and while I don’t think Hellberg is going to remain with Seattle all year I do think he could remain up until Grubauer is healthy and once he is back Hellberg should be sent to the minors and that is all the Waiver updates for now as I will have more waiver news in the coming days.
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