The Calgary Flames have placed winger Tobias Rieder on waivers, presumably with the intention of sending him to AHL Stockton.
Rieder, of course, joined the Flames in camp on a professional tryout and parlayed his strong preseason into a contract with the team.
Rieder struggled to produce in the regular season – that’s been the case for years with him – as he mustered up just one point in nine games. That’s probably a key reason he finds himself on the waiver wire because, honestly, he played pretty well otherwise.
With Rieder on the ice at 5v5, the Flames controlled 52.38% of the shot attempts and 57.75% of the scoring chances. Rock solid numbers, especially for a role player. That didn’t lend itself to a positive goal differential but a piss poor .899 PDO (i.e. lack of puck luck) has more to do with that than performance.
He also skated a fairly regular shift on the penalty kill and garnered solid results. In fact, no Flames forward was on for fewer scoring chances against per minute than Rieder. I thought his speed was a factor there.
While I’m not necessarily surprised by the move, I don’t really agree with it. I'm sure Rieder will be back at some point if he clears on Tuesday.