The Senators put Kurtis MacDermid on waivers Saturday, and any team looking for a heavyweight now has a 6-foot-5 option sitting on the wire.
The 32-year-old winger was injured through all of training camp and hasn't dressed in any of Ottawa's first 12 games.
He's expected to clear Sunday and head to the AHL in Belleville. That leaves the other 31 teams one last window to grab him.
Hayden Hodgson took his spot on the fourth line. MacDermid played only 19 games last season after arriving from New Jersey.
Ottawa acquired him after a heated preseason game against Montreal that didn't go the Senators' way. The timing told you exactly why he was there.
His résumé reads the way you'd expect: 424 penalty minutes across 307 NHL games.
At 233 pounds, he still fills a doorway. His contract has just one year left at $1.15 million.
Heated rivalries make Kurtis MacDermid a smart waiver claim
Think Tampa Bay and Florida. The Lightning visit the Panthers on November 28, and that rivalry has never needed help heating up.
Colorado and Dallas already went back-to-back on October 13 and 14, splitting a pair of one-goal games.
MacDermid knows the Avalanche well. He spent three seasons in Colorado, dressing for 58 games in 2021-22.
An enforcer is like a fire extinguisher bolted to the kitchen wall. Most nights it just hangs there, but nobody wants to be the cook who didn't have one.
The modern game has squeezed this role nearly out of existence, and plenty of GMs will pass. A contender in a nasty division race should claim him anyway and dress him when the temperature rises.
The risk is small. He hasn't played this season, so conditioning is a fair question, but the cost is just a waiver claim.
If nobody bites by Sunday, he rides the bus in Belleville. And the first time a star gets run in a rivalry game this winter, somebody will wonder why they didn't make the call.
Should a contender claim Kurtis MacDermid off waivers to protect its stars?
Also read on Markerzone.com:
Dylan Larkin's expanded trade list reportedly includes a new Atlantic team
