Early Sunday afternoon, news broke that the Philadelphia Flyers had placed forward Jordan Weal on waivers, giving every team in the NHL a chance to claim him. The hope on the part of Ron Hextall and the Flyers was that Weal would slip through as teams were working to organize their own rosters for the start of the season.
24 hours later, they learned that their gamble paid off.
Everyone on waivers yesterday cleared.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) October 10, 2016
As TSN’s Bob McKenzie noted, all played placed on waivers on Sunday (including Weal) cleared, meaning that not one team put in a claim for an available player. As a result, Weal remains property of the Flyers, and can now be assigned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL.
Weal had a solid preseason, visibly improving as the weeks progressed. He only played in 14 hockey games all of last season, so that probably contributed to some rust. By the end of the preseason, Weal looked like one of Philadelphia’s more dangerous forwards.
However, with the news that Travis Konecny made the roster, spots in the actual lineup became scarce. The Flyers likely want to see Weal actually play hockey this year (rather than spend another season in the press box), and once he was poised to be the 13th or 14th forward, the AHL seemed like a better option. In addition, this was the best time to try and slip him through waivers, while other teams are desperately trying to finalize their own rosters rather than looking to poach players from another teams.
Hextall mentioned today that Weal has not been assigned to the AHL as of yet, but almost certainly will be at some point this week. That is because the Flyers’ main focus now is maximizing their LTIR allowance, and sending Weal down on Wednesday or Thursday after other roster moves are complete might be the best way to do so. Still, expect him to end up with the Phantoms eventually, where he’ll be a top scoring option for head coach Scott Gordon. He also could very well be an injury call-up down the road if any of the current top-six forwards on the roster get hurt.
