We have 24 hours starting….NOW
With goaltender Evgeni Nabokov officially signed to a one-year, $570,000 (pro-rated) contract offer (with No Movement Clause) from the Red Wings, he begins his journey along the waiver wire: a 24-hour period where none of us will know his fate, and can only speculate as to which NHL team he’ll become property of on Saturday at noon.
The waiver order is determined by teams’ records at the time at which the waiver offer is placed (meaning, today at noon). The percentage of points earned to games played is used, since not every team has played the same number of games. Below you’ll find the waiver priority list as of today — the team at the top has first dibs, the second has second dibs, and so on.
At the end of the 24-hour period, the League will collect all of the teams that have made a claim (if any), and the team nearest the top of the list gets the player.
Also listed are each teams’ goaltending situations and cap space — just so we can argue who fits where and why. Let the baseless speculation continue! And don’t forget to place your Nabokov-related pledges!
1. New Jersey (Brodeur – NTC, Hedberg – NTC; no cap space; $1.17M LTIR space)
2. Edmonton (Khabibulin, Dubnyk; $12.6M cap space)
3. Islanders (DiPietro, Poulin, Lawson; $18.5M)
4. Ottawa (Leclaire – inj, Elliot, Mike Brodeur; $435k)
5. Toronto (Giguere – NTC, Gustavsson; $3.5M)
6. Calgary (Kiprusoff – NMC, Karlsson; no cap space; $450k LTIR space)
7. Buffalo (Miller – NTC, Lalime; $4.3M)
8. Florida (Vokoun – NMC, Clemmensen; $8.8M)
9. Los Angeles (Quick, Bernier; $4.1M)
10. Columbus (Mason, Garon; $5.3M)
11. Atlanta (Mason – inj, Pavelec; $18M)
12. San Jose (Niemi, Niittymaki – inj; no cap space; $580k LTIR space)
13. Carolina (Ward – NTC, Peters; $9.6M)
14. St. Louis (Halak, Conklin; $12.6M)
15. Anaheim (Hiller, McElhinney; $3.6M)
16. Minnesota (Backstrom, Harding – inj, Theodore; $1M)
17. Chicago (Turco – NMC, Crawford; $327k)
18. Colorado (Anderson, Budaj; $17M)
19. Rangers (Lunqvist, Biron; $1.8M)
20. Phoenix (Bryzgalov, Labarbera; $8.6M)
21. Montreal (Price, Auld; $1M LTIR space)
22. Nashville (Rinne, Lindback; $8.9M)
23. Washington (Varlamov – inj, Neuvirth – inj, Holtby; $982k)
24. Boston (Thomas – NMC, Rask; $377k)
25. Tampa Bay (Smith, Roloson, Ellis; $10M)
26. Pittsburgh (Fleury – NMC, Johnson; $103k LTIR space)
27. Dallas (Lehtonen, Raycroft; $7M)
28. Vancouver (Luongo – NTC, Schneider; $197k LTIR space)
29. Philadelphia (Bobrovsky, Boucher; $394k; $832k LTIR space)
Just for giggles, the Red Wings would be between Dallas and Vancouver if another team were waiving a player.
It’s fair to cross off many of those teams, either because their goaltending situation is solidified or because they don’t have the cap room to make a claim. Below is who I’m thinking has a legit chance of claiming Nabokov. What do you think?
2. Edmonton
3. Islanders
9. Los Angeles
10. Columbus
11. Atlanta
12. San Jose (God, that’d be awesome)
15. Anaheim
23. Washington
For some reason, I’m seeing some people saying that they think Chicago has legitimate interest in Nabby, which makes no sense to me. They are stuck with Turco and his NMC, and I can’t see him waiving it to move, especially when he wants to play for a contender and every other team that fits that bill already has a goalie better than Turco. The Hawks are also very pleased with Corey Crawford, who is their goalie of the future.
Personally, I believe he is going to end up on the Wings, but if I had to pick a team that will claim him (for the purposes of keeping him on their roster), my first guess is that Atlanta will take a shot so they have a good backup to Pavelec since they are in the playoff mix. My darkhorse candidate is Colorado: Anderson has been hurt and I know that the fans are not happy with his performance this year, and I don’t think Budaj is the answer for them since they are fighting for a playoff spot.
I’m not sure how credible you’d consider Matthew Barnaby, but last night he guaranteed Washington would not claim Nabokov…
I’m curious as to why you throw Ottawa out of the mix?
The owner is delusional and thinks the team, as is, can win. Their goalie situation is the absolute worst its been since the days of Damien Rhodes and Ron Tugnutt (hehe), and they just seem like they’d do it because it’s “the missing piece”.
Because I don’t know how long Leclaire is expected to be out and — as of right now — he’s not on LTIR. If he isn’t placed on LTIR, they don’t enough cap space even to pick up Nabokov’s cheap 570k deal.
Also, Damien Rhodes reference FTW.
All I know is my roomate, a Sens fan, is ordering his Nabokov jersey as we speak.
Nabokov has said that he’d prefer to be the #1 guy (yeah, who wouldn’t) and that he wants to go to a contender.
Assuming just the latter, I’d think that blows Edmonton, the Islanders, and Columbus right off the list. I don’t see the Kings parting with either Jonathan. I could see the Southeast being a plausible destination- Atlanta, Washington or Tampa Bay (I’d laugh my ass off if the Lightning cut both Ellis and Smith, both of whom have bad tendencies to kick rebounds into the slot).
Watch Kenny Holland come up with some way to put a poison pill in the contract which says that Nabokov gets a particular additional amount of money unless he dresses for n games in Detroit.
Nabokov has absolutely no say in who claims him. The Oilers, Islanders, and Jackets probably know they couldn’t sign a player like that on their own merits and might take advantage of the opportunity to acquire him — and at an insanely low number at that.
He has the ultimate say- if he doesn’t want to play with the team who claims him, he just refuses to report. I can’t believe he’s hurting for money badly enough that he’d go to Lon Gisland (hey, it’s they way they day it there, go figure), particularly if he’s not the guaranteed starter for the three games it takes for Rickie DiPietro to get hurt again. See also Ottawa, Leclaire.
For that matter, I think anyone willingly going to any of the top six potential claimants on the full list oughtta have their head examined, but they’re goalies, and I’ve yet to meet one who wasn’t at least a little fucked in the head.
Excellent points all around.
Building on that, I wonder what kind of “penalty” there would be for failing to report. I assume the new team would simply suspend the player, as they would any other time someone failed to report. Because, as I understand, he will become property of whoever claims him no matter what. He becomes their “problem,” so to speak.
Great thought, dude.
I like the theory that Kenny has made a deal with the Devils where they claim, then waive him so the Wings can grab him. Some loophole I don’t completely understand… anyone have any insight into this?
ok well per @Ledger_NJDevils, apparently they won’t put in a claim. I’ll go STFU now…