Four Unexpected NHL Players Placed on Waivers, per Elliotte Friedman
With the NHL Trade Deadline quickly approaching, teams are adjusting their rosters which has led to four players being placed on waivers on Wednesday afternoon.
It's 48 hours until the NHL Trade Deadline, and as teams are looking to see which pieces fit their teams the best, they are also looking to see which roster pieces are expendable when it comes to their current crop of players.
However we saw a lot of movement on Wednesday as Elliotte Friedman reports that four players were placed on waivers: Jordan Oesterle, Jakub Vrana, Christian Fischer, and Jesse Puljujarvi.
The teams who were dumping these players to waivers are Boston (Oesterle), Washington (Vrana), Detroit (Fischer), and Florida (Puljujarvi) and all these teams are potentially going to make deals come deadline day and need to make roster and cap room for moves.
Oesterle, 32, didn't do too much with Boston and registered only six points in 22 games (1G, 5A). A journeyman defender, he's played with six different teams already in his career: Arizona, Edmonton, Chicago, Detroit, Calgary, and Boston.
He signed a two-year, two-way deal this summer with the Bruins but was used sparingly.
Vrana, 29, is a former solid Top 9 player with the Capitals although he's having a down season with only 11 points in 26 games (7G, 4A) although his first stint in Washington went well with 168 points in 310 games (83G, 85A) and won a Cup with them as well.
He signed with Washington on a one-year deal at the start of the season.
Fischer, 27, had a lot of games under his belt for the Red Wings this season, but never really found a role in the lineup under Todd McClellan.
In 45 games, he had only one goal and five assists while adding 89 hits and winning a very respectable 56.3% of his face-offs (though he's only had 16).
At 6'2, 212 pounds, Fischer could be claimed from a contending team looking to add some size and toughness ahead of the playoffs.
He signed as a free agent with the Red Wings this past summer.
Finally, Puljujarvi. The former 4th overall pick could be considered a draft bust at this point, and his assignment on waivers is just the feather in a cap for a rocky career.
This season he's only mustered nine points (3G, 6A) in 26 games, but for his career has had a dismal 127 points in 382 games; a far cry from the offensive dynamo he was expected to be.
He's bounced around from Edmonton to Carolina, then signed with Pittsburgh as a free agent before ending up in Florida after being released by the Penguins.
This could spell the end of his NHL career, and it might be in Puljujarvi's best interest to see if his talents would be better suited in Europe.
