The Ottawa Senators have placed Zack MacEwen on waivers. MacEwen has played 22 games for the Senators this year and scored two goals and three points, along with 46 penalty minutes and a -3 rating. He’s a fourth-line grinder and plays a physical game which is especially useful to the team during rivalry games.
This is the second time this year that MacEwen has been sent down to the minors, earlier in the season he cleared waivers and was re-assigned to the Belleville Senators in the AHL. He played four games for the B-Sens and scored two points there.
The Senators made this move to free up cap room so they can activate goaltender Anton Forsberg off LTIR. The netminder has been out of commission for over a month after sustaining a groin injury and is nearing a return to the lineup. Senators’ goaltender Joonas Korpisalo has been backed up by Mads Sogaard and Kevin Mandolese during the course of Forsberg’s injury. The team will be happy when Forsberg returns so they can have the tandem they intended for at the start of the season.
MacEwen made the most sense to be the odd-man out. He hasn’t contributed much offensively this year and has had a very limited role in the bottom-six. He also poses the least risk of being picked up on waivers of all the players in the Senators’ bottom-six. Ridly Greig, Shane Pinto, and Mathieu Joseph are key pieces for the future. Dominik Kubalik is a deadline trade target and would likely be picked up if he was waived. Parker Kelly and Mark Kastelic have been a bit better than MacEwen and are considered future pieces as well.
It is unlikely that any team will claim the 27-year-old but if anyone does it won’t hurt the Senators that much. MacEwen has scored 15 goals and 31 points in 208 career NHL games and has 291 penalty minutes.
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