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Anaheim Ducks Claim Chris Wagner Off Waivers, Bob Murray Talks Trade Deadline

By Griffin Foster

Oct 27, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Anaheim Ducks right wing Chris Wagner (62) skates against the Dallas Stars during the game at the American Airlines Center. The Stars defeat the Ducks 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 27, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Anaheim Ducks right wing Chris Wagner (62) skates against the Dallas Stars during the game at the American Airlines Center. The Stars defeat the Ducks 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Anaheim Ducks claimed center Chris Wagner off of waivers after losing him to a claim in mid November.

The NHL is a crazy world dictated at times by peculiar business decisions. Tricky roster and financial issues often cause problems for all 30 general managers and the Anaheim Ducks faced one of those tricky roster situations earlier this season.

Back in mid November, Ducks GM Bob Murray was faced with a tough roster situation that forced him to place center Chris Wagner on waivers. The Colorado Avalanche swooped in to put a claim on Wagner and it appeared his future with the Ducks organization had come to an end.

Well, the Colorado Avalanche found themselves in a tricky roster situation earlier this week. With the maximum 50 players under contract and the trade deadline approaching, Avalanche GM Joe Sakic decided to place Chris Wagner on waivers.

The Anaheim Ducks then made a move of their own to put in a claim on Wagner and bring him back to the Ducks organization.

How this all was possible and what it means

As I mentioned, the Avalanche were at the maximum 50 players under contract which gave them no wiggle room as we approach the February 29th trade deadline. That led to them placing Wagner on waivers.

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The Ducks on the other hand only had 47 players under contract, room to add 3 players, and Murray made the decision to claim Wagner. The Ducks now sit at 48 players under contract (Julius Nattinen does not count as a player under contract due to him being an 18 or 19 year old that was sent back to juniors and Marcus Pettersson is exempt as well).

Another reason behind this decision, article 13.22 discussed in the collective bargaining agreement.
The article says that if a team loses a player to waivers and then at some point puts in a claim on that same player and is the only team to do so, then that team can then send the player to the AHL without having to pass him through waivers first.

So, since the Ducks lost Wagner to waivers and were apparently the only team to put in a claim on Wagner, they were then allowed to send him to the AHL with no waiver issues involved. Wagner is now back with the Gulls of the AHL.

It will be interesting to see what Murray does with Wagner. The Ducks roster is at it’s max 23 players, but Harry Zolnierczyk is still with the club and it might make sense to reassign him to the AHL and recall Wagner because after the trade deadline each team is only allowed four non-emergency based recalls. But again, waivers fear may keep Wagner in the AHL for the remainder of the season.

In other news, Bob Murray spoke to the media today as well

Bob Murray went on a conference call earlier today to discuss the trade deadline and other issues. Eric Stephens and Helene Elliott took to twitter to give us the insight and details of what was said on the call. Here are the most important takeaways.

  1. Murray said he tried to work on extensions with his RFA’s (Lindholm, Rakell, Andersen, Vatanen) in December but nothing came of it and progress was not made. This is interesting because Murray also said, “it’s going to be an interesting summer around here.” You have to now believe he may walk away from extension talks until the summer, which is a gamble to say the least.
  2. Murray said he does not want to move his first round pick, Shea Theodore, Jacob Larsson or Nick Ritchie at the deadline. No surprise here, the Ducks have made a selection in the first round of the draft every year since 1999. Theodore, Larsson and Ritchie are the Ducks top 3 prospects at the moment and moving any one of them would not make sense.
  3. Murray said he thinks there are a few players out there that could help his team “in certain areas.” He also said “some of these guys, I’d like to have in the future too.” Woah. Discussing the future, is he talking about young wingers like Jonathan Drouin and others that may become available?
  4. When talking about the teams budget and how it effects the deadline, Murray said “I’ve saved enough money to my budget to do something if I think it will help us.” According to my calculations (give or take a million or two, possibly) the salary focused Ducks have around $61 million committed in salary this season and around $63 million committed to the cap. They have some wiggle room but with four key RFA’s needing extensions this summer, Murray should remain cautious.

Next: How Rickard Rakell has put together a breakthrough season

There you have it, a busy day for the Ducks summed up in about 800 words. The Ducks are back in action tomorrow night at home against the lottery lucky Edmonton Oilers. As always, follow us on twitter for the latest news and updated Bob Murray comments.

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