Wyatt Smith Put on Waivers

TSN is reporting that Wyatt Smith has been placed on waivers today. The reason for Richardson being demoted and recalled within couple days is now clear. They meant to put Smith on waivers but someone clicked on the wrong player name. It happens. By the time FG noticed the error, Richo was already on a plane to Cleveland so he figured he'd give him some time there to work on his game while resubmitting the waiver form for Wyatt Smith.

But seriously, this is likely what should have happened in the first place. Not that Wyatt Smith was a terrible fourth-liner by any means but Laperriere is coming back soon and I'd rather see McCormick and Guite stay in as the grinders than Wyatt Smith.

Smith's PK time dwindled over the last couple games as Guite/Richardson/Stastny/Hejduk carried the load and his overall ice-time started going downhill as well. He had a game low 6:34 against the Sharks last night which made me go "Hmm..." but I didn't want to jump the gun and claim shenanigans.

If no team claims him, he'll be off to Lake Erie which is where I expected him to start the year. Who knew Richardson would get injured and then toyed with like a yo-yo before making the roster full time?

And on a side note, the term "Wyatt Smith" is the most common player name popping up in the keyword stats for this site. Bizarre.

Avalanche Sign O'Neil and Smith

No, it's not Jeff O'Neil and Jason Smith. It's Wes O'Neil and Wyatt Smith. The signing was announced today although all weekend long the Wyatt Smith signing was talked about on message boards. Yes, the state of the hockey world right now is so slow that the signing of a reserve forward was the talk of the weekend.

O'Neil, a former Islanders pick, has just finished up with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and was second among team defenceman with 21 points. He's a big guy at 6'4" and 200lbs but he's rated at 6.5 D on HockeyFutures.com. So currently he's expected to be a 5th or 6th D-man who may not even live up to those high expectations. But he'll likely do well on the Lake Erie Monsters roster.

Wyatt Smith is a career reserve forward who spent 61 games with the Minnesota Wild last season which was a career high. Another player likely to be on the Monsters roster for most of the year.

Thankfully the Canada-Russia Super Series will be a nice distraction from all this intense off-season action. At least until rookie camp starts on September 8th. I'll be watching the Canada-Russia game in Saskatoon on September 5th and I'm looking forward to seeing John Tavares in action. TSN and Rogers will be broadcasting the games on TV and across the ol' InterWeb.