His waiver exemption doesn’t matter, my point is they weren’t going to send Smith down to protect Studenic.
We used Geertsen as a spare D/F but mainly as the spare F. Geertsen being a D/F gives him added flexibility, but he’s not good and I think Studenic is.
They hoped Studenic would make it through waivers and he didn’t.
The team should have known Studenic was an enticing target because he has good underlying numbers (both ways) and makes 750k. You can stick him in the line-up and he’s good defensively, an excellent forechecker (better at that then most of the guys on this team now) and can get to net with his speed. And even if you don’t play him, if you’re near the cap (and a ton of teams are), it’s valuable that he’s that dirt cheap, cheaper even than a lot of the guys in minors you could call up (who would likely play worse, particularly defensively).
When Dallas picked him up they were working with very little cap space. Colorado called up Stefan Matteau over Maltsev earlier in the year because Matteau made 750k vs Maltsev’s 809k. It can get that tight.
And it was 29 days before the trade deadline, and having any extra cap space for potential moves is important for the same teams that wouldn’t mind having a guy making 750k on their roster. (If they were accumulating cap space for the TDL and were tight at the cap.)
So Fitz might have made a bad call with his roster management. Maybe there are other moves he could have made. If you want to protect the honor of Geertsen, fine. It’s spilt milk.
Players Utica lost and never had this season:
Dawson Mercer - never had, likely ticketed for Utica if not for excellent camp and injuries to Wood and Tyce, it happens, awesome for Dawson
Jesper Boqvist - organically moved up and stayed up, and earned it, this a natural part of losing AHL players, no worries
Mark Jankowski - PTO signed with Buffalo after being cut over Freddy Gauthier, tied (as of 3/31) with DeLeo (Utica Pt/G leader) in Pt/G for Rochester
Scott Wedgewood - should have been waived in early October when opening day rosters were being finalized instead of early November, some say 20/20 hindsight, I say it's basic SOP, 21 G cleared between Montenbeault and Wedgewood claims
Marian Studenic - should have been sent down before waivers eligibility kicked in after playing tenth NHL game on 1/08, and playing only two NHL games thereafter over a month later in February, then claimed after another month of not playing in March
Colton White - should have been waived at the deadline with or instead of Jaros
Christian Jaros - never had, should have been waived in early October with White, Studenic, etc., would have had a better read on his intentions then, and could have waived White at the deadline instead, 11 games of Jaros for Nick Merkley
Nate Schnarr - If Wedgewood gets through waivers in early October, Hammond trade is unnecessary
Ty Smith - never had, some think Ty could have benefited from some time in Utica
*Nico Daws - will return for playoffs, how many regular season AHL games does he get? Utica has 9 GR not including tonight.
