Goalie Leevi Merilainen gets claimed off waivers!
A move on the wire and in between the pipes.
On Thursday, the Ottawa Senators placed goaltender Leevi Merilainen on waivers, and consequently on Friday, he was claimed by a rival Canadian team.
Merilainen was claimed by the Vancouver Canucks. All other players cleared.
Merilainen had an 8-10-1 record, 3.51 GAA and .860 save percentage in 20 regular-season appearances with the Senators last season. The move clearly indicated that Ottawa will be going with Samuel Ersson as the backup to Linus Ullmark in net this season.
The young netminder spent parts of the past six seasons in the Senators organization since the team selected him with the 71st overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft.
He made his NHL debut on Apr. 4, 2023, and worked in a limited capacity in the past two seasons.
Merilainen now moves across the country to join the Canucks' organization. It so happens that Marilainen has a history with Canucks goalie coach Marko Torenius in Finland.
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Christine has been a lifelong hockey fan ever since she fell for Mario Lemieux’ slick moves and Jaromir Jagr’s mullet. A professional writer, she joined Attraction Media in 2017. Since then, she has good reasons to watch all hockey games and can humiliate several men who can’t handle that a woman knows more about hockey than they ever will.
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