Lightning Round: Waiver wonders and Bo Horvat is leaving Vancouver

The Seattle Kraken claimed Eeli Tolvanen off waivers from the Nashville Predators on Monday. The Preds were reasonably confident their former first round pick would clear, but the Kraken took him from their spot 21 teams down the waiver order. Tolvanen has settled into a bottom six forward role in the NHL, but struggled to find a real role on the Predators, playing on every line this season. He should find it much better on a Kraken team with a more fun system and a clear role.

The Kraken also placed Karson Kuhlman on waivers yesterday. While the Coyotes played Dysin Mayo on waivers as well. Mayo is an interesting player who got absolutely wrecked in top-four minutes last year, got a three-year extension, and now has been getting absolutely wrecked in third pair minutes and is now out of the lineup. Reminds me of the Philippe Myers situation in that it seemed like an unnecessary decision to give a player like this term beyond the next season.

Bo Horvat will likely be alongside Ryan O’Reilly as the big deadline targets going into this spring. If the Lightning were able to acquire him, I feel like it would give the rest of the forwards from the second line down a breath of relief as the pressure to perform to their position rather than ability goes away — namely Anthony Cirelli. He would be a perfect 2C on the Lightning and allow Cirelli to be the 3C he really is.

Hagel - Point - Kucherov
Paul - Horvat - Stamkos
Killorn - Cirelli - Namestnikov
Maroon - Colton - Perry

I don’t know about you, but I’m sold.

Brayden Point is awesome.

Steven Stamkos was the team’s star of the week, and we agree!

Here are the results from last night.

Random fun fact while perusing the NHL standings. Vegas, Montreal, and New York (Rangers) have the worst records at home among teams above .500. I wanted to mention this because I also noticed three of the underperforming teams this year, Florida, Calgary, and St. Louis, all have poor road records. Obviously, I’m just saying a team’s results in the standings are bad because they’ve lost games, but I do find the home/road splits a little insightful.

Montreal lost Cole Caufield to an injury after he got hit in open ice. Caufield is almost certainly in concussion protocol. His head looked like it hit the ice.

The Ottawa Senators honored an old franchise star, Wade Redden, as the first member added to their “Ring of Honor.” Redden was famously traded for Zdeno Chara when he went to NYI.

The NHL announced the three stars of the week. Tage Thompson for his five-goal, six-point game last week, Lindgren for going 4-0-0 during the week, and William Nylander for his five-point night on Saturday.

Jaromir Jagr briefly came out of retirement to play for the team he owns in the Czech Republic after an illness plagued the team.