Canucks place Curtis Sanford on waivers

Although Jason Labarbera struggled in last night's loss to the Devils, the Canucks see something in Barbie that Sanford lacks. Size could be part of it. His record prior with the Canucks prior to his flaws last night wasn't all that bad. Ian Clark will continually work with Labarbera to improve his composure, stance, style and speed. In the meantime if Luongo stays healthy he will play almost all of the remaining games give or take a few.
Sanford seemed well-liked by his teammates and fans alike. He held a competition in the pre-season for an artist to design his mask. All the best in the future, Sandman.

“It was a very challenging decision for us,” said head coach Alain Vigneault. “Curtis is not only really respected and liked by his teammates but the whole coaching staff and management feel exactly the same way.”

Vigneault did not say why the Canucks chose Labarbera over Sanford except to say that he told Sandman this morning and that if he clears waivers he'll play in Manitoba.

The good news out of all this is that Roberto Luongo will make his debut on Thursday against the Coyotes.

T Tags: Canucks+place+Curtis+Sanford+on+waivers Jason+Labarbera

Lightning claim Pettinger off waivers

That's the risk a GM takes putting a guy on waivers in the first place. Pettinger was placed on re-entry waivers as the Canucks have injury problems, as was Kyle Wellwood, and Tampa scooped up the depth forward. Maybe this was Gillis' plan all along since Pettinger cleared waivers a few days back. He wanted to get rid of him. Who knows for sure.
So what now? Is it time for Michel Ouellet to get a chance? The Canucks need another winger for tonight's game. Stay tuned.
Good luck in Tampa, Matt. Thanks for all your hard work here.

T Tags: Lightning+claim+Matt+Pettinger+off+waivers Canucks

Bieksa could play Sunday / Wellwood clears waivers

Link to story.

Canucks put Wellwood on waivers

Mike is hacking me already.
Adiose buddy. I hoped for a different fate. But the current Canucks squad is getting the job done. There will be times in shootouts where the haters will miss him I guarantee that.

Link to CBC story on Wellwood.

T Tags: Canucks+place+Kyle+Wellwood+on+waivers

Canucks place Matt Pettinger and Jason Krog on waivers

Matt Pettinger was acquired by the Canucks from the Capitals for Matt Cooke last season. He was getting squeezed down the depth chart anyway. I thought Krog might have stuck. Nope. Rumors have him heading to the KHL if no NHL team picks him up.

The current Canucks roster up front looks something like this:

Sedin-Sedin-Bernier
Raymond-Demitra-Pyatt
Burrows-Kesler-Hansen
Hordichuk-Wellwood-Johnson

But not even that is in stone yet. If it is, I almost like it. At this point of the game I don't know where Wellwood properly fits in. Is he going to get 2nd line duty? He isn't a 4th line player. Thoughts?

Several teams are finalizing their rosters and putting players on waivers. How about Boyd Devereaux and Staffan Kronwall out of Toronto, Peter Schaefer out of Boston, and Kyle McLaren out of San Jose.

There's more.

T Tags: Canucks+place+Jason+Krog+Matt+Pettinger+on+waivers Peter+Schaefer Kyle+McLaren
Boyd+Devereaux

The Bulin Wall isn't toast yet

The deadline teams have to pick up Khabibulin on waivers (and at his whopping salary) has come and gone (12:00 EST). Unless a late report comes out, no one has taken the former Cup winner.
Too much dough. And obviously teams are not willing to pay it. I can't imagine what Chicago was trying to get for him before they put him on waivers....but no one bit.
Now The Bulin Wall will most likely get demoted and then put on re-entry waivers, where most people believe he will be claimed at half of his $6.75 million salary. That makes Khabibulin cheap for the taker and knocks just over $3 million off the Hawks' cap spending.
So who is going to gamble on the netminder?
Rumors persist that Ottawa will trade for him. I say bunk to that. Gerber is getting his chance.
It seems that the Kings is his best fit. Sure, they are rebuilding, but when was the last time the Kings actually had a bonafide starting goalie?
It's all going to go down in the next several hours.

Speaking of waivers: Is anybody going to claim Michel Ouellet, who was put on waivers yesterday by the overloaded Lightning?

Tags: Khabibulin+clears+waivers? Kings Senators Blackhawks

Schneider clears waivers and what that means / Marcus Nilson put on waivers

No takers. No love.
Now, as Faceoff.com puts it (and I always need to be reminded):

Anaheim could still swing a trade for the veteran defenceman or send him to the minors when the season starts. However, that wouldn't alleviate the cap hit.

He would be subject to re-entry waivers should the Ducks recall him, at which point he could be claimed at half his salary, with the Ducks forced to pay the other half.

Nilson, who was rumored to be heading to the KHL, was put on waivers by the Flames today. I believe that Nilson was unable to go to Russia because of his contract with the Flames. Soon, the doors will be wide open for him to leave the country.

T Tags: Matthieu+Schneider+clears+waivers

Flames+put+Marcus+Nilson+on+waivers

Ducks place Schneider on waivers: Any takers?

I am kind of suprised that no one took Schneider via a trade. Now someone will have to claim the 39 year old defenceman and rid Brian Burke of his salary so that he can sign Teemu Selanne. Question is, who is going to pay an aging defenceman in decline $5.5 million?

-Ottawa is close to being able to absorb a Schneider contract and could use a little scoring from the back end beyond Filip Kuba.

-Los Angeles: The most likely candidate because they have so much money left over and lost Rob Blake in the summer. They could use more scoring on the blue line beyond Jack Johnson and Tom "discount" Preissing.

- Phoenix: Has spent under $40 million so far and lost Boynton and Ballard in the Jokinen trade.

- Maybe Columbus.

- Maybe Atlanta.

- Islanders?
-The Blues could use some depth on defence and have money.

- Or he may just retire because there are no takers. But that almost seems unlikely. At the same time, for that pricetag, Schneider's production really dipped last season, where he was scoring over 50 points with the Red Wings the 2 previous years.

T Tags: Ducks+place+Matthieu+Schneider+on+waivers

Devils put Vishnevski on waivers / Marcus Nilson can't leave Calgary

Looks like Lou Lamorielli is trying to shave some salary, to the tune of $1.4 million as the rough and tough Vishnevski was put on waivers today. Any takers? We'll see. He was a career-worst -12 with the Devils last season. He was benched by coach Sutter, and was basically the 7th defenceman.
He's not known for putting up a lot of points, but he can sure kill guys pretty well.

VishTube

- Brett McLean feels the wrath of Vishnevski.

- Boyd Gordon turns around to play the puck and bango! Vitaly shows him how to lay down real quick-like.That was a suicide pass wasn't it?

- Vishnevski sends Tjarnqvist into the boards.

- Karma. Ovechkin runs over Vishnevski. What a collision! Vitaly can take that kind of hit though. He's tough.

---

Marcus Nilson wants to get away from the Calgary Flames and Mike Keenan, but he just can't get out of his contract. According to HockeyExpressen.se, a team from the KHL is interested in Nilson, but he has one more year (at $1 million) left with the Flames.
According to the article, Nilson wanted to have his contract bought out but the Flames are not willing to do so.

"They do not want to buy me out. It was a little pity. But they can do whatever they want."

This change in attitude from Nilson contradicts how he was talking about playing in Calgary and under Keenan early last season (November). By December, he was a healthy scratch about 6 times.
He finshed the season having only played 47 games, scoring 3 goals and 5 points. He also suffered a concussion injury, by the way.
The gritty winger was mostly reduced to checking-role duty. At one point he was complaining about not being allowed to play enough 5-on-5 and was being used as a penalty killer mostly.
I don't think this news has not even hit the North American papers yet, but I'm sure it will soon.

MarcusTube

- Nilson drops the gloves with Marty "beyond all" Reasoner.

T Tags: Devils+put+Vitaly+Vishnevski+on+waivers Marcus+Nilson+wants+out+of+Calgary buyout