Waiver Wire Prominence

The waiver wire was on fire Wednesday as the trade deadline marched on at a relatively slow pace.

Many skilled players were claimed on Wednesday, and having so many of those players waived on the Monday started a new trend of cap management in the NHL. Many GMs waived long-time NHLers in order to free up cap space for their deadline moves. Other GMs made those waiver wire claims their deadline moves. Here's a quick recap of the waiver wire over the last few days.


Calgary
Claimed defenseman Lawrence Nycholat off waivers from the Vancouver Canucks, then turned around and traded him to Colorado as part of the Jordan Leopold trade.


NY Rangers
Claimed forward Sean Avery off re-entry waivers from the Dallas Stars, an expected move from the Rangers was overshadowed by other deadline moves, thank god Sean Avery' story finally got bumped off the headlines.


Toronto
Claimed goaltender Martin Gerber off waivers from the Ottawa Senators and defenseman Erik Reitz from the New York Rangers. The Gerber claim lead to the placement of Vesa Toskala on IR and an interesting change of scenery for Eric Reitz. Reitz was prominent in the AHL for the past couple seasons and brings an offensive defenseman to the mix in Toronto. It is also a vote of no confidence for Justin Pogge. Pogge has been unimpressive in his Marlies uniform this season and that play carried over to the Leafs jersey in 5 starts.


Pittsburgh
Assigned forwards Miroslav Satan and Bill Thomas to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL); claimed forward Craig Adams off waivers from Chicago Blackhawks. Really interesting to see Satan in the minors, obviously a cap move, this leads me to think that Satan will be very tempted to move to the KHL this off season. Picking up Craig Adams from Chicago will prove to be a good move as he should fill out the Pens' bottom 6.


Dallas
Claimed forward Brendan Morrison off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks. Very good move for the Stars, having Brad Richards out of the lineup for at least another 3 weeks, Morrison will be a great fit on the Stars' 3rd line. Morrison also has been great friends with Marty Turco since their days at the University of Michigan.

Overall, I think the teams that benefited the most from trade deadline day are those that picked up their "rental" players for free even though they may not land the big headlines, they will fill out some very important roles for the rest of the season.