Quote:
Originally Posted by devo22
you can never be "certain" such a player clears. There might easily be things the Flames can't know, like injuries in training that suddenly allow a team to take a flyer on someone like Pelletier. I would argue the chances of someone like Hanley clearing waivers are higher than Pelletier, so yeah, why risk losing him in the first place? I get all the "others have passed him" yada yada, but given the Flames are in rebuild, I don't get the decision to keep Hanley over Pelletier at all.
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Because, the team has to.
If it has been determined that Pelletier can't play in the NHL right now (which is the right decision), but the team is still hopeful that he can yet rehabilitate his game in the AHL, then the move makes sense. It makes sense today, when the waiver wire is totally flooded by players and teams all in the same situation as Pelletier and the Flames. I seriously doubt that anyone is looking at Pelletier, and thinking, "He's ready to play in our bottom-six today!" More likely, they are all thinking about Pelletier the same way the Flames are, but also do not have the luxury the Flames do to assign him to the AHL, where everyone agrees is the place he should be playing.
As for Hanley, it's probably less about "keeping" him than it is about calculating when it is the best time to get Cooley, Schwindt and Pelletier through.