The Dallas Stars placed Curtis McKenzie and Patrik Nemeth on waivers Tuesday as general manager Jim Nill effectively trimmed the roster to 23 players.
The plan is for both players to clear waivers and be assigned to the AHL’s Texas Stars, which would immediately make the AHL team much better.
But what are the odds either player gets claimed? Both are in the relative primes of their careers age-wise and could be intriguing adds for another NHL roster.
McKenzie is 26 and extremely cost-effective with a one-year, $700,000 salary.
The Minnesota Wild in particular could use his services heading into opening night. Thanks to an injury to Zach Parise that will cause him to miss at least the first two games, the Wild have just 11 healthy forwards and $866,000 in cap room.
For Minnesota, adding McKenzie would allow them to fill out the lineup for the first couple games, while the Wild would also add a reliable 13th forward for when Parise returns from injury that would serve as an effective placeholder for the future. One of Minnesota’s top prospects, Luke Kunin, is probably the 13th forward this season, but he’s at the stage in his career where he’s better served playing big minutes in the AHL with the Iowa Wild.
Nemeth, 25, has a bit larger cap hit at $945,000, but could be an ideal fit for the Colorado Avalanche, Ottawa Senators, or Washington Capitals.
In Colorado, Nemeth would instantly be one of the top-four defenders on a nightly basis and could play alongside Tyson Barrie or Erik Johnson. Ottawa’s defense has struggled in the preseason, and Nemeth could add some stability to the third pairing.
Washington spent much of this preseason testing to see if Jyrki Jokipakka was still an NHL defender, and appear to have settled on a bottom four group with Madison Bowey, Christian Djoos, Aaron Ness, and Taylor Chorney. I’d argue Nemeth would be an upgrade there as either a consistent third-pairing defender or healthy scratch.
We’ll see what happens at 11 a.m. (noon ET) today.
Housekeeping Notes
– Ryan Satkowiak and I are recording the podcast tonight. You can tweet questions you want answered my way or leave them in the comments of this post.
Catchup links
Radulov’s puck possession skills have Stars excited for the season
Today’s Schedule
The Stars practice in Frisco at 10:30 a.m. in Frisco. It is open to the public.
SFAULI says
How many games do you think Honka ends up playing this season?