Comments on: Decrypting the 2005 NHL CBA: NHL Waivers – The Ultimate Waiver Bible

By: Racki

Racki — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:42:10 +0000

Great research, thanks! I’ve heard others in the media say the same thing, that these pickups are uncommon. No one really cares to pick up our offcasts. So on that note, I can see them putting Chorney.. maybe Brule.. on waivers and that player just going on through. Maybe they get picked up.. but I don’t see it as a big deal. Do it now.

By: Oil Trader

Oil Trader — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:17:17 +0000

Hmm … so I was curious enough to look this up. I post it here in case it is of interest to others.

Number of players picked up off waivers leading up to opening day roster submission:
(2011 so far – one, Nick Johnson)
2010/11: 2 – one re-waived Feb 8 (Ritola) and (oops!) Michael Grabner
2009/10: 4 – including two returned later (Smolenak & Bourque) & our own Sugartits heading off to New York
2008/09: 6 – including two returned later (Lindstrom & Janik), one re-waived in November (Ellis) and our own pickup of SmacIntyre from Florida
2007/08: 1 – Karel Pilar, later returned
2006/07: 5 – four of which hit the waiver wire again in Oct (Traverse & Stewart), Nov (Sabourin) and Feb (Thorburn)

So, ignoring 2011 (that story has yet to be told), over the last 5 years there have been 18 waiver wire pickups coming out of training camp, 5 of which were later re-waived and picked up and 6 re-waived and passed on by their original clubs. That leaves a grand total of seven (7) players “lost” to waivers at the roster deadline over the last five years.

The fans & the ‘sphere (and obviously management) fret and worry about losing prospects like Deslaurier and Chorney, but the reality is that while it IS possible (see Grabner), it’s fairly unlikely at this time of year. Teams are focussed on their own personnel & facing hard decisions about their own 23-man limit, as well as being handcuffed by the 50-contract limit. And for a GM to grab a waiver wire pickup at this time of year is a massive admission of failure to provide the team with enough talent. I’m not sure that a last-place club like the Oil have that much to worry about.

As a side note, there have been far more “permanent” waiver pickups every year in the 3-4 weeks AFTER the roster deadline, when GMs & coaches have had more time to assess their clubs and injuries have started to kick in. So temporarily sheltering a player at the deadline (for example, Deslaurier & Dubnyk last season) leads to a far greater chance of losing them once they are exposed.

By: Racki

Racki — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:02:16 +0000

Welcome to the site, Oil Trader… I don’t think it’s too common, but I can’t say for certain. As far as a site that has them… I wonder if maybe you might have to go to NHL.com or TSN or Sportsnet or a place like that and check the transactions that occur around this time of year.

By: Oil Trader

Oil Trader — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:15:44 +0000

Hey, Racki, any idea where a guy could find a list of waiver pickups from the last few years? Althought there are always a few players that change hands every year (e.g. “Tubthumper” Jones), I get the impression that there are actually very few that get picked up in the windup to opening night (Grabner being the obvious one last year).

We in Oilerland are always sweating someone picking up one of our AHL assignees (“Let’s see, the Oilers finished 31st out of 30 clubs last year, approximately 175 points behind us, and this guy’s not good enough to make the squad … sure, let’s take a flyer on him!!”). But really, with everyone concentrating on their own personnel and struggling with caps and contracts, how common is it at this time of year?

By: Racki

Racki — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:50:06 +0000

LOL thanks again guys. Really, I think having a resource like that here will come in handy, and I’d hope to add to it more.

Like I said too, if people have any specific questions they want researched, mention it here and someone will answer. I know there are some other smart CBA people here that aren’t admins… I think LNOF is a good one if I recall. This will kind of be a running doc, and I will eventually expand to other areas of the CBA over time.

NHLSCAP probably has the best explanation of the CBA in layman’s terms that I’ve seen, but even a few things there needed to be dumb down more (or some topics not covered there I felt needed to be added). I’ll try and keep it so that you don’t need a university degree to know an answer to a CBA question.