The NHL waiver wire hasn’t had as many names come across it this year. Does the Vegas situation play into that? Could be, but the fact remains that you don’t see as many “my favorite team should claim this guy… as you have in the past.
Today there is an intriguing option on the waiver wire and somewhat surprising. The Chicago Blackhawks waived Cody Franson yesterday. He makes 1M and his underlying numbers have been really good. By really good I mean a CF% of 58.63, relative CF% of 8.21 (leads Chicago), and a 5v5 points per 60 of 0.56. That isn’t anything to sneeze at for only 1M. Those are solid numbers for what should be a bottom pairing defenseman. However, he hasn’t been a bottom pairing defenseman. His most common linemate this year is Duncan Keith at 190 minutes at 5v5. That means he’s been on the top pairing. Now I don’t think anybody looking to pick him up should be aiming to put him on a top pairing, but you can’t tell me that the majority of other teams in the league couldn’t find better value with Franson on a bottom pairing than what they are getting and that includes the Penguins.
Now since this is a Penguins blog; should the Penguins place a claim? I would have said yes before acquiring Jamie Oleksiak. I don’t necessarily think Oleksiak is better, but there is no room on the roster right now for Franson. You already have Kris Letang, Justin Schultz, and Chad Ruhwedel playing right defense. You also have Matt Hunwick and Oleksiak with spot duty on the right side as well.
One thing this waiver opportunity does bring to light
Players like Cody Franson being tossed aside to waivers every year is exactly why you don’t need to sign the Matt Hunwicks of the world to 3 year contracts worth $2.25 mil per season
— ben howlin’ (@vinnybatts) January 8, 2018
The Hunwick contract was very unnecessary for Pittsburgh. I understand that the team was looking to bridge the gap between losing Ian Cole and finding his replacement, but I’m not sure how many teams were looking to lock him into three years at that price and if they were let them.
If Franson goes unclaimed today it will be gross negligence by a good number of teams. He isn’t a great player, but value is value and at his price point there are many situations that would be improved by his presence on the roster. Just don’t look for Pittsburgh to be one of them given their current roster situation.
Thanks for reading!