Big news day on the NHL waiver wire, with plenty of movement
Are teams starting to sort out their rosters early in advance of the NHL's March 7th trade deadline.
This just in, Erik Brannstrom (Vancouver Canucks) and Marc McLaughlin (Boston Bruins) have both cleared waivers today.
From Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman:
There was plenty of speculation online yesterday that Brannstrom may have been picked up off waivers given his pedigree and his stellar play with the Canucks so far this season. With Filip Hronek expected to rejoin the team after recovering from injury, Brannstrom was left without a position on the Canucks. Now that he's cleared waivers, it's expected that he'll join the team's AHL affiliate Abbotsford Canucks and re-establish himself as one of the AHL's top offensive blueliners.
Additionally, today the Minnesota Wild have placed forwards Ben Jones and Devin Shore on waivers today, while the Tampa Bay Lightning have waived Gage Goncalves.
Jones and Shore aren't expected to generate much interest around the league, but Goncalves is likely to raise at least a few eyebrows. He has just one goal and two points in 26 games with the Bolts this season, but he's a proven scorer at the AHL level with the Syracuse Crunch and he's just 23 years old. I could see an NHL team taking a flyer on him for a depth role, so don't be surprised if he's on the move by this time tomorrow.
