Ducks Place Nick Jensen On Waivers

Another veteran defenseman finds himself on the waiver wire.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the Ducks have placed blueliner Nick Jensen on waivers today.

With Anaheim losing a big chunk of their back end from last season (John Carlson, Jacob Trouba, Radko Gudas, and Olen Zellweger), the Ducks inked the 36-year-old to a two-year, $4.5MM contract on the opening day of free agency back in July.  While they were planning to have some of their younger players (such as Tristan Luneau and Noah Warren) take on full-time roles, the hope was that Jensen would be able to bring some veteran stability to their group and play some important defensive minutes.

But things haven’t quite gone to plan.  Jensen has found himself a healthy scratch rather often this season, getting into just three of 13 games thus far.  While he has chipped in offensively with a goal and an assist in those outings, Jensen is logging just 15:20 per night, well below his career average of 18:40 with some underlying numbers that aren’t exactly making a case for him to see a bigger role.  Instead, that bigger role, if it comes, may be coming in the minors with AHL San Diego.

A veteran of now 11 NHL seasons, Jensen is just three games shy of 700 for his career, having spent time with four different organizations.  He has 27 goals and 147 assists in those appearances, along with 895 blocked shots and 723 hits.

While he’s a right-shot defender, the side that is typically in high demand, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Jensen pass through unclaimed.  Injuries hindered him a bit last season with Ottawa and it’s not as if he’s off to a great start this year.  That, coupled with another year on his contract, might result in there being no takers for his services.  Teams will have until 1 PM CT on Sunday to play a claim on Jensen.