215-pound power forward placed on waivers today
The San Jose Sharks power forward Givani Smith was among several players placed on waivers today.
It is fairly unusual to see several players placed on waivers on the same day in the NHL once the regular season has started.
During training camp and preseason, days like these happen all the time as teams make cuts and try to sneak players through to their AHL squads, but a day like this in December is exceedingly rare.
That is exactly what we saw today though as three clubs placed players on the waiver wire for the purpose of being demoted to the American League.
Those players are Blackhawks forward Joey Anderson, Sharks forward Givani Smith, and Kings defenseman Caleb Jones.
It is hard to call any of these players highlights of the group, but perhaps Smith is the most prominent name.
Jones has some notoriety as Seth Jones' brother, but Smith is arguably the best-known player as he has made a name for himself as an enforcer in the league.
This season though, he has gotten into just 6 games with the Sharks and has averaged less than 7 minutes of ice time per game.
The 6'2", 215 pound power forward has appeared in 161 career regular season games and has 9 goals and 22 points to go along with 50 career regular-season fights.
The moves have naturally lead to some speculation as to whether or not any of these players could get claimed.
One fan reasoned that the Kings could look into Joey Anderson as it would reunite him with his brother.
Similarly, another fan suggested that more moves could be coming for the Blackhawks since they waived Anderson.
Specifically, they pondered if this could mean top prospect and 2022 13th overall pick Frank Nazar could be getting a callup.
Nazar has 11 goals and 24 points in 20 games at the AHL level this season. The Blackhawks could certainly use a scorer like that to jumpstart their offense.
Regardless, it should be interesting to see if any of these players get claimed or if any of these teams make subsequent moves in the coming days, so stay tuned for that.
| POLL | ||
DÉCEMBRE 8 | 56 ANSWERS 215-pound power forward placed on waivers today Do you think any of the players placed on waivers today will be claimed? | ||
| Yes, Smith | 4 | 7.1 % |
| Yes, Anderson | 14 | 25 % |
| Yes, Jones | 10 | 17.9 % |
| No | 28 | 50 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Jonathan Drouin | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Roope Hintz | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Jason Robertson | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Brady Skjei | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Zachary Werenski | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Clayton Keller | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Oskar Back | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jake Debrusk | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Luke Evangelista | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Conor Garland | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kent Johnson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexander Kerfoot | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Joel Kiviranta | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cale Makar | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirill Marchenko | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Martin Necas | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Thomas Novak | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 53 | 36 | 14 | 3 | 75 | |
Capitals | 51 | 34 | 11 | 6 | 74 | |
Oilers | 51 | 32 | 15 | 4 | 68 | |
Hurricanes | 52 | 32 | 16 | 4 | 68 | |
Golden Knights | 52 | 31 | 15 | 6 | 68 | |
Wild | 52 | 31 | 17 | 4 | 66 | |
Stars | 50 | 32 | 17 | 1 | 65 | |
Devils | 53 | 29 | 18 | 6 | 64 | |
Panthers | 52 | 30 | 19 | 3 | 63 | |
Maple Leafs | 51 | 30 | 19 | 2 | 62 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||