Leafs put Nic Petan on waivers

It’s waivers SZN, and there won’t be any shortage of Leafs players being waived in the coming days. Today’s waivers player was a fairly predictable one.

So, ignoring the other two for a minute, we’ll focus on Nic Petan, the Leaf who will is likely facing a demotion to the Marlies in the near future.

Petan being put on waivers relatively early in the process is probably being done as somewhat of a favour to Petan, giving him a chance to be claimed by another team and find an opportunity. It’s still doubtful he’ll get claimed, but for a player that has been looking for an opportunity in the NHL after being on the bubble in both Winnipeg and Toronto, this is another chance for the Leafs to try and do right by him.

Petan’s future is either likely to involve the Marlies or he’ll clear waivers and the Leafs will trade him for someone else’s AHL property or future considerations to allow him an opportunity but not having to deal with waiving him to the AHL themselves.

Petan was likely a long shot for the Leafs taxi squad, but depending on how waivers plays out for other Leafs like Boyd, Agostino, and Brooks, he might find himself in consideration for the squad.

In addition to Petan on waivers, two former Marlies find themselves on waivers today as well. Jeremy Bracco has been waived by Carolina, and Mikko Salomaki was waived by Colorado. Again, neither one of these players are likely to be claimed.

David Backes being on waivers is also somewhat interesting, but only in the sense that he’s a household name. No one is taking on that contract.

Anyways, back to Petan. He was most generously considered a long shot to factor into the Leafs this year, so I’m sure we won’t lose much sleep over how this waivers process plays out.