The Seattle Kraken placed goaltender Chris Driedger on waivers on Thursday afternoon.
Driedger has missed the entire season with a torn right ACL that he suffered during the gold medal game of the 2022 World Hockey Championship with Canada. The 28-year-old had a 9-14-1 record with a .899 save percentage in his first season with Seattle, a year after impressing with a 14-6-3 run with Florida.
Driedger has a 30-23-5 record with five shutouts in 65 NHL games. Prior to his injury in May, Driedger took Canada’s starting role away from Logan Thompson, beating France, Sweden and Czechia before losing to Finland in overtime in the final.
With Driedger out long-term, the Kraken signed Martin Jones to a one-year deal to help shore up the team’s crease. Driedger has traveled and skated with the Kraken in recent days, so that should indicate that he isn’t far off from returning to game action.
If Driedger clears, he could head to the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds for his first minor league action since 2019-20. He has a 62-58-11 record over seven AHL seasons and had the league’s best save percentage of .924 in 2018-19 while with Springfield.
The Kraken have been one of the NHL’s biggest surprises this season, with the club currently sitting third in the Pacific Division and three points behind Vegas for first. The battle will be tight to the end, with Edmonton (70 points) tied with Seattle and Calgary not far behind with 65 points.
Jones has been the team’s No. 1 this season with Philipp Grubauer also taking some of the load. Joey Daccord had a start earlier in the season, with Magnus Hellberg and Christopher Gibson also earning backup call-up roles this year. It’ll be interesting to see how the Kraken handle their goaltending situation down the stretch, with both Jones and Grubauer putting up disappointing numbers as a whole.
Driedger has one year remaining on his three-year deal worth $3.5 million per season.
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