NHL team places 3 players on waivers, cuts 14 more from preseason roster.

Huge cuts made early on Saturday morning.

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HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
NHL team places 3 players on waivers, cuts 14 more from preseason roster.

For fans of the National Hockey League training camp and the NHL's preseason can be some of the most exciting times of the year as fans get to look at and admire the talent that will be the future and the present of their beloved franchises. For players however it can be among the most excruciating times of the year as they wait to find out whether or not they have what it takes to make the cut at the NHL level.

Unfortunately for a huge number of players on the Minnesota Wild's training camp roster today, Saturday September 22nd, will likely go down as a rough day as a total of 17 players were effectively slashed off the current roster. The Wild had made very few cuts up until this point but in the early hours of the morning today the axe dropped on a number players, although admittedly most of whom likely new from the outset that making the NHL roster would be a long shot for them. 

According to a report from Minnesota Wild insider Mike Russo of the Athletic the Wild informed 14 players this morning that they were to be reassigned to the Iowa Wild, the Minnesota Wild's American Hockey League affiliate. Among the 14 are two goaltenders, Kaapo Kahkonen and C.J. Motte, four defensemen, Louie Belpedio, Gustav Bouramman, Eric Martinsson and Brennan Menell, as well as eight forwards, Colton Beck, Gerry Fitzgerald, Pavel Jenys, Chase Lang, Gerald Mayhew, Dante Salituro, Mason Shaw and Dmitry Sokolov. All of these players were assigned by the Wild and did not need to clear the waiver process, however three of the players sent down today do in fact need to go through waivers.

Of particular interest to fans of rival organizations around the league will be the names of the three players the Wild have put up on waivers for the express purpose of assigning them to the Iowa Wild much in the way that they did with the 14 aforementioned players. Two of the three players placed on waivers today have NHL experience and they are forwards Cal O'Reilly and Landon Ferraro.

O'Reilly is the oldest of the three at 31 years of age and it seems fair to say that it is highly unlikely that he will be claimed by a rival organization. Over the past three seasons O'Reilly has appeared in just 32 total NHL games split between the Buffalo Sabres and the Wild, instead spending the vast majority of his time playing with the Rochester Americans, Toronto Marlies and the Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League. In his last 12 games at the NHL level O'Reilly has just 1 assist to his name and at this stage of his career it seems like he is destined to finish out his playing days in the AHL. 

Ferraro on the other hand is 4 years younger at just 27 years of age and he is just 2 years removed from a 58 game season as a member of the Boston Bruins. Injuries sidelined Ferraro considerably following that season but he did appear in 2 games for thew Wild last season and picked up a goal during those 2 games. Like O'Reilly however he has spent most of his time recently at the American Hockey League level but unlike O'Reilly it seems fair to say that Ferraro is likely viewed as a more valuable option in terms of roster depth that O'Reilly at this stage of his career.

The third and final player to be waived by the Wild today is 23 year old defenseman Hunter Warner. Warner is a right shooting defenseman, often a valuable commodity in the NHL, but was an undrafted prospect out of the WHL before signing a professional contract as a member of the Iowa Wild. Warner has seen limited use at the AHL level over the past two seasons appearing in a total of just 89 games for the Iowa Wild and with no NHL experience under his belt it's difficult to gauge where other team's around the league perceive his value to be.

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