The Calgary Flames have played a couple of players on the waiver wire, per multiple reports. Via The Athletic’s Chris Johnston, among others, the Flames have placed forward Adam Ruzicka and defenceman Nick DeSimone on waivers.
Ruzicka, 24, is a pending restricted free agent on a one-way deal with a cap hit of $762,500. He’s a left shot forward who can play centre or the wing. He’s shown flashes of brilliance, but he’s also faded into the background quite a bit at times. He’s played as a top nine winger and fourth line centre, but hasn’t really grabbed hold of either role. He has 3 goals and 9 points in 39 NHL games this season. It’s his first time ever on the waiver wire.
DeSimone, 29, is a pending unrestricted free agent on a two-way deal with a cap hit of $762,500. He’s a left shot defender. He’s been perfectly fine as a third pairing depth option, but you could argue he lacks much upside beyond that and perhaps there’s a temptation to try out somebody else in that role. He has 1 goal and 5 points in 23 NHL games this season, along with 0 goals and 8 points in 10 AHL games. It’s his second time this season on waivers; he cleared in October at the end of training camp.
The Flames are currently carrying 22 players on their active roster. If either player clears waivers, the Flames would have the ability to shuttle them between the NHL and AHL until they spent 30 days on the NHL roster (at which point they’d require waivers again).
We’ll find out each player’s fate at noon MT on Thursday.
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