The Depressing History of Carolina Hurricanes Waiver Claims

The Carolina Hurricanes have made extensive use of the waiver wire this season. Unfortunately, the claims they’ve made have fallen right in line with a rather depressing list of players who the club has picked up over the years. Since 2006, the Canes haven’t had much luck with waiver claims, despite making nine claims over that time - an average of slightly under one per year.

We went back through the media guide to see the players the Hurricanes have plucked off waivers in the past eleven years, and the number of key contributors the Canes have picked up can be counted on one hand. Buckle up for a trip down memory lane as we look back at the Canes’ waiver misadventures.

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1/8/2008: Claimed forward Sergei Samsonov on re-entry waivers from Chicago.

Samsonov, the Canes’ only dip into the re-entry waivers pool during its short existence, was with the Hurricanes from 2008 until almost the end of his career in 2011 and supplied a stickhandling veteran presence. He was also a big asset to the team during their playoff run in 2008-09, scoring five goals at even strength adding three assists for eight points in 17 playoff games with a plus-two rating. His three-plus years with the Hurricanes was his second-longest tenure with an NHL franchise. Samsonov was traded to the Panthers for Bryan Allen at the 2011 trade deadline, and retired the following offseason.

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11/16/2010: Claimed forward Troy Bodie on waivers from Anaheim.

Bodie’s six year NHL career shows he didn’t really have much to offer. Despite having some size at 6-5, 225, the Manitoba native played 50 games for the Hurricanes tallying one goal, two assists, 54 penalty minutes and a minus-4 rating. Although his offensive numbers weren’t great, his possession numbers were decent with the Canes with 10 takeaways and only four giveaways, and as fourth-liners go his 48.5% Corsi-for was one of the less bad numbers on the team. Bodie averaged 6:19 of ice time per game but was smart with the puck when he had it. He was re-signed by the Ducks just before the 2011-12 season began.

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11/29/2011: Claimed forward Andreas Nodl on waivers from Philadelphia.

Nodl actually spent parts of two seasons with the Hurricanes, split by the 2012 lockout. He wasn’t anything special with just eight points in 56 games for the Hurricanes, and he spent six games with the Charlotte Checkers in 2013, suffering an injury that kept him out of action for a good portion of the season. Nodl’s last stop in the NHL was with the Hurricanes at age 25, and he has spent the last four years in the Austrian league.

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3/16/2013: Claimed forward Adam Hall on waivers from Tampa Bay.

Adam Hall was an odd scenario. He played 682 games for seven teams over an eleven-year career, but only played a full season once and his six-game stint for the Hurricanes didn’t exactly go down in the history books. With the Canes, he had no points and a minus-2 before he was shipped back to Tampa for Marc-Andre Bergeron two and a half weeks after being claimed. (And then he was waived and claimed by the Flyers the next day, as if he hadn’t been through enough already.)

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3/21/2013: Claimed forward Zach Boychuk on waivers from Nashville.

Any Canes waiver column is incomplete without Zach Boychuk, who was the subject of 21 separate transactions during his time with the organization. Boychuk was a very good AHL player, but in his 7 year NHL career he scored just 13 goals in 127 games, 11 of which came with the Hurricanes. In January of 2013, Boychuk was claimed by the Penguins, who then waived him on March 5, whereupon he was claimed by the Predators. He was placed on waivers again on March 21, where the Canes snapped him up - and, predictably, sent him to Charlotte two days later. After the Canes claimed Boychuk from Nashville, he totaled six points in 42 games, and currently plays for Novosibirsk in the KHL.

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11/20/2014: Claimed forward Andrej Nestrasil on waivers from Detroit.

A rare bright spot in the Canes’ waiver history, Nestrasil has totaled 17 goals, 29 assists, and 46 points and is a plus-3 since joining the Hurricanes from Detroit. He’s a player who has nice hands and can stop on a dime. Most of his success has come from playing with Jordan Staal, but unfortunately hasn’t been the same since his back injury last season and is currently playing with the Charlotte Checkers where he has 10 points in 15 games.

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10/9/2016: Claimed forward Martin Frk on waivers from Detroit.

It’s hard to believe, but the Hurricanes actually went nearly two full years without a waiver pickup before they snagged Frk just before the 2016-17 season began. Frk played two games for the Canes, his first career appearances in the NHL. He recorded a minus-3, was a healthy scratch for six more, and was re-claimed by Detroit on November 1, 2016

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10/11/2016: Claimed defenseman Klas Dahlbeck on waivers from Arizona.

Dahlbeck has come into the Hurricanes organization and contributed decently on the back end. Although he doesn’t have great statistical numbers, he has been able to put himself in good positions while averaging 13 minutes of ice time per game while rotating in and out of the lineup as the sixth defenseman with Ryan Murphy and Matt Tennyson.

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1/4/2017: Claimed forward Ty Rattie on waivers from St. Louis.

Rattie was picked up as the Canes’ third waiver claim of the season, spent five games with the Canes and was a healthy scratch for 13 more. He recorded two assists and was a minus-2 before being re-claimed by the Blues, who assigned him to the AHL.

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So, here’s the bottom line: nine players claimed off waivers, and excepting Boychuk who’s in a class by himself, the other eight have totaled 76 goals, 121 assists and 197 points in 500 games. Samsonov and Nestrasil by themselves account for 71-110-181 in 363 games, so the other six? Five goals, eleven assists, 16 points in 137 games.

Ouch.