Training camp cuts

[saskhab]

First , Thank you for the information. I’m not knowledgeable in that area and can’t suggest otherwise for your post. For so many years now I have believed the waiver rule only applied from the first day of NHL play ( Oct.1st. this year ) until June 30th. The NHL player contract year.

A example of your understanding would be Rob Schremp being claimed earlier this week from Edmonton. My concern is, of the cuts made with the Habs there were more than just a few that would have had to clear waivers, Yet not one was claimed? Not even claimed to send to their AHL affiliates. Is there a unwritten agreement between GM’s to not claim prior to the star,t or are our AHL cuts just not as good as some of us believe?.

Well, the players the Habs had to waive to send to Hamilton weren't really enticing players: Alex Henry, Shawn Belle, Andre Benoit, Curtis Sanford, Mathieu Darche and Mike Glumac I think were the ones that had to go through waivers. Players on entry level contracts don't have to go through waivers, so Subban, Weber, Carle, Desharnais, Johansson, etc. all couldn't be claimed.

Secondly, teams are limited to having 50 players under contract. Montreal has 48, so they aren't likely to take a flier on a guy, if a player is waived and available they would want to make darn sure that he could step in and be better than a few players in their starting lineup. If the Habs are like that, you can bet a number of other teams are the same way. So we aren't going to see a lot of waiver claims. If a guy isn't good enough for the Oilers, it's hard to believe he'd be much better than players on most NHL lineups. The Islanders are an exception, and they had first crack at Schremp anyways. For them, it's low risk, they aren't looking to be competitive down the line, and they just added a very skilled, still young player to their lineup, regardless of his questions of poor work ethic and lack of commitment to fitness and defensive play. If nothing else, he can be a PP/shootout specialist.