- 71 players across 22 teams hit waivers Sunday ahead of Monday’s Opening Night deadline
- Ville Heinola, Alexander Holtz and Henri Jokiharju are among the names now available
- Read below for the full team-by-team breakdown and what’s behind the flood of names
Sunday was chaos on the NHL waiver wire.
Twenty-two teams placed a combined 71 players on waivers, with compliant Opening Night rosters due across the league by 5 p.m. ET Monday. Every club has to get under the number before puck drop on Sept. 29, and Sunday was the last big wave before that deadline hits.
Vegas put both Ville Heinola and Alexander Holtz on the wire, two former first-round picks the Golden Knights picked up in trades over the last year. Boston did the same with defenseman Henri Jokiharju, and Nashville waived both Nick Perbix and Ilya Lyubushkin in the same afternoon.
That last move caught the attention of NHL insider Alex Daugherty, who floated a theory on why the Predators would clear that much money at once:
Perbix carries a $2.75 million cap hit and Lyubushkin comes in at $3.25 million, real money for two players who almost never get exposed like this. If Nashville is clearing that kind of room on purpose, a trade wouldn’t be a surprise this week.
Eleven goalies are sitting on the wire too, including two familiar faces from Washington’s crease in the early 2020s. Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek, who once split time behind the Capitals’ pipes, got waived Sunday by their current teams, the Sharks and Islanders.
Two players from Saturday’s list already found new homes. The Blues claimed Justin Barron off waivers from the Predators, and the Devils grabbed goaltender Remi Poirier from the Stars.
PuckPedia tracked Sunday’s moves as they came in:
A handful of names stand out beyond the ones already mentioned:
- Montreal Canadiens: Led the league with nine players waived, including veteran goalie Kaapo Kahkonen
- Florida Panthers: Eight players waived, headlined by forward Sam Lafferty
- Ottawa Senators: Eight players waived, including former first-rounder Tyler Boucher
- Tampa Bay Lightning: Goaltender Mads Sogaard and forward Jakob Pelletier both hit the wire
Claims on Sunday’s list have to be in by 2 p.m. ET Monday, with final rosters due three hours later. Whoever gets left unclaimed either sticks in the NHL or heads to the AHL once the season opens Tuesday.
