Morning Hits: Waivers, Pens, Avs, Oilers, and 2015 1st Round Picks
  • Renaud Lavoie: On waivers yesterday: Chris Porter and Colin McDonald (PHI), Cody Bass (NSH), Dominik Uher, Kael Mouillierat, Steve Olesksy, Reid McNeill and Will O’Neill (PIT), Chris Butler and Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson (STL), Zach Stortini, Eric O’Dell, Michael Kostka and Fredrik Claesson (OTT), Maxim Noreau and Joey Hishon (COL).
  • Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Penguins cut 18 players yesterday, dropping their camp number to 31.

    “The thought process is still to go with eight defensemen and probably go with 13 forwards,” he said. “I think we’ll have the luxury, from the cap perspective, to go right to 23.”

    Player still in camp include:

    Goalies — Marc-Andre Fleury and Jeff Zatkoff.

    Defensemen — Adam Clendening, Ian Cole, Brian Dumoulin, Tim Erixon, Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang, Ben Lovejoy, Olli Maatta, Derrick Pouliot, Rob Scuderi and David Warsofsky.

    Forwards — Beau Bennett, Nick Bonino, Sidney Crosby, Matt Cullen, Jean-Sebastien Dea, Pascal Dupuis, Bobby Farnham, Eric Fehr, Patric Hornqvist, Phil Kessel, Tom Kuhnhackl, Chris Kunitz, Evgeni Malkin, David Perron, Sergei Plotnikov, Kevin Porter, Bryan Rust and Daniel Sprong.

    Gonchar is on a PTO. Fehr will likely start the season on the IR.

  • Avalanche.NHL: The Avalanche assigned Andrew Agozzino, Chris Bigras, Joey Hishon, Andreas Martinsen, Maxim Noreau and Calvin Pickard to the AHL. Conner Bleackley was returned to the Junior.
  • Mike Chambers: The Avs release defenseman Andrej Meszaros from his PTO.
  • Edmonton Oilers: The Oilers assign Darnell Nurse, Mitch Moroz, Martin Gernat and Iiro Pakarinen to the AHL. 28 players are still in camp – three goalies, 10 defensemen and 15 forwards
  • Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer: The Flyers could keep Scott Laughton, but only if he’d be in their top-nine. Their third line center position could come down to Laughton or Vincent Lecavalier. The Flyers last roster spot will likely go to either Laughton or defenseman Brandon Manning.
  • Michael Traikos in the Ottawa Sun: Dylan Strome is making a strong push to make the Coyotes.

    “In all candor, I did not think he would be making so hard a push for the opening night roster,” Maloney said in a phone interview. “I just thought he would be here for a short stint and be back to Erie.”

    There could be as many as eight 2015 first round draft picks playing in the NHL this season – Strome, Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, Pavel Zacha, Mikko Rantanen and Lawson Crouse and Mathew Barzal.