Bruins right wing Chris Wagner and defenseman John Moore both cleared waivers on Sunday, paving the way for the pair of veterans to be sent to AHL Providence.
The team made the mildly surprising decision to cut both players on Saturday, giving the other 31 NHL teams a chance to claim them.
However, either one getting claimed was always unlikely because of their contracts. Moore is signed for two more years at $2.75 million per season, while Wagner has two years left at $1.35 million per. Any team claiming them would take on those full contracts.
If they had been claimed, it would have freed up that much in cap space for Boston. The Bruins will still get some cap relief by sending Moore and Wagner to Providence, but not the full contract.
They will free up just over $1 million in cap space on each contract. According to @bruinscapspace, they will still be charged a cap hit of $1.625 million on Moore and $225,000 on Wagner. That leaves the Bruins with just over $3.1 million of cap space right now.
Moore, who has battled injuries the last couple years, looked pretty good this preseason and certainly made a case to stick around as a seventh or eighth defenseman. Instead, it appears the Bruins will go with just seven D to start the season, with Jakub Zboril as the extra man.
Cassidy noted that Moore’s primary competition was Connor Clifton, as Moore had played mostly on the right side this preseason and likely needed to beat out Clifton to get playing time. Obviously, that didn’t happen, and the Bruins will be sticking with Clifton as their third-pairing right defenseman to open the season.
For Wagner, the writing was on the wall this preseason when he got few repetitions with regular fourth-liners Trent Frederic, Tomas Nosek and Curtis Lazar and instead skated mostly with AHL players.
Still, an injury to Lazar in the final preseason game that has him listed as “week-to-week” could have been the opening Wagner needed to make the team. Instead, it looks like Karson Kuhlman will draw into the lineup until Lazar returns and likely stick around as the extra forward after that. Kuhlman would need to clear waivers in order to be sent down.
Cassidy cited “pace” as a key factor in both Lazar and Kuhlman slotting ahead of Wagner for the time being. With Frederic -- not exactly the fastest skater on the team -- on the left, the Bruins didn’t want two plodding wings on one line.
The Bruins have until Monday at 5 p.m. to finalize their initial opening night roster, which must be cap-compliant and include no more than 23 players. There could still be a move or two throughout the week leading up to Saturday's season-opener.