The Tampa Bay Lightning have placed defenseman Zach Bogosian and forward Gabriel Fortier on waivers as they try and set their final roster prior to the season starting on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators. The moves will set up other moves that should give the team a little flexibility in the early part of the season.
The waiving of Fortier isn’t that much of a surprise as the 23-year-old played well but was passed on the depth chart by the emergence of Waltteri Merela. It’s the first time through waivers for Fortier and he should pass through and be assigned to Syracuse.
Placing Bogosian on waivers was a bit more of a surprise considering the role the veteran has played for Coach Cooper over the last couple of years. There is a possibility, though, that this is a paper transaction. If Bogosian clears, or if a team claims him, his $850,000 cap hit is completely removed from the cap. Combined with Fortier’s $775,000 that leaves the Bolts just $93,333 over the cap according to CapFriendly.
What Julien BriseBois can do then is assign Merela to Syracuse (he doesn’t have to go through waivers) which would make the Bolts cap compliant by the 5:00 PM EST Monday deadline. On the first day of the season they can then put Andrei Vasilevskiy on Long Term Injured Reserve and then call up Bogosian and Merela.
If he really wanted to have fun, after he sent Merela down, Mr. BriseBois could sign Austin Watson, currently in camp on a PTO, to a $776,667 contract to use 100% of the LTIR provided by Brent Seabrook and then waive Watson to Syracuse or keep him on the roster as an extra forward. With Vasilevskiy on LTIR after the season starts, they would have the cap room to carry an extra defenseman and two extra forwards while maxing out their roster to 23 players.
It is also possible that Bogosian’s second run with the team has come to an end. The emergence of Nick Perbix and Darren Raddysh on the right side of the defense has limited Bogo’s playing time a bit. Coupled with some injuries the 33-year-old has averaged just 47 games over the first two seasons on his current three-year deal. He’s posted 4 goals and 9 assists over that time while averaging just about 15 minutes of ice time.
Should he be claimed, or sent to Syracuse, the Lightning defense would line up somewhere along the lines of:
Victor Hedman – Darren Raddysh
Mikhail Sergachev – Nick Perbix
Calvin de Haan – Erik Cernak
Hayden Fleury
The positive spin on that configuration would be familiarity. de Haan would be the lone player not to have suited up for the team last season and there is something to be said for knowing your teammates, especially considering that there will be a somewhat inexperienced goaltender in Jonas Johansson in net.
Speaking of goaltending, there were a few interesting names on waivers in Alex Stalock, Martin Jones and Malcolm Subban. All three could be fit into the salary cap based on the moves already made (and sending Merela down for a day). The added bonus would be that their entire salary could be buried in the minors once Vasilevskiy is healthy again.
Stay tuned for any more moves over the next 24 hours as we close in on the start of the season.
