#mnwild has activated Josh Harding from Injured Reserve and placed him on waivers.
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) November 17, 2014The Minnesota Wild have put Goaltender Josh Harding on Waivers this morning after activating him from the IR. The Wild don’t have a need for Harding right now, not with Kuemper and Backstrom already on the books. The Oilers on the other hand could very much use a goaltender.
Josh Harding is a Masterton Winner who has shown a lot of courage and strength in the face of his MS Diagnosis. He was suspended and placed on IR after he kicked a wall and broke his foot before the season started. Because the injury happened off the ice it was reported that Harding was not being paid during his suspension. Now he’s physically ready and the Wild have wasted no time placing him on waivers.
The Oilers are in desperate need of a goaltender to step up and it simply hasn’t happened. Scrivens played sufficiently well last night but his season average is still just .899 and Fasth has been even worse, sporting a .885 sv%. Nobody has stepped up in the crease and this is a rare opportunity that has presented itself to a team that is low enough in the standings to have a great shot at getting the player on waivers and whose skaters are playing well enough that quality goaltending can potentially turn the ship around.
Simply put, Goaltending is killing the Oilers.
All of the underlying numbers suggest this is a team that should very much be challenging for that last playoff spot and yet today they sit dead last in the West and 27th in the NHL. They’ve given up 60 goals on the season and competent, league average goaltending alone would cut that down significantly.
Here is the Rundown on Harding. He hasn’t played a game this season because of the injury/suspension, but last year he was 29GP, he faced 690 shots and had a .933 sv%. He had 3 Shutouts and had a 1.65 GAA if you care about GAA. It was essentially his best year ever. He is 30 years old and this is the last year of his contract which carries only a 1.9M Cap Hit.
The Oilers have roster space after sending both Klefbom and Pakarinen down to OKC and they have an estimated 5.78M in Cap Space today. If they choose to send Fasth down to OKC (after placing HIM on waivers) then they will get 900k of Cap relief.
Harding has a .918 sv% in 151 total NHL games on his career. He’s a decent goalie and he’s cheap, plus the contract ends this year.
From my perspective the Oilers HAVE to put a claim on Harding. It sends the message to the team that they are trying to get better, that the season is not lost yet. They need to do it because frankly if they wait too much longer this season WILL be over.
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