The 29-year-old netminder cleared waivers after being placed on them on Wednesday.
The Carolina Hurricanes are more than likely breathing a heavy sigh of relief after netminder Spencer Martin cleared waivers on Thursday.
Martin, 29, was placed on waivers Wednesday to prepare the netminder for potential reassignment to the AHL.
The Hurricanes actually acquired Martin off of waivers last season from the Columbus Blue Jackets and the journeyman played a big role in helping to stem the tide of rocky goaltender availability in Carolina.
So why is Martin clearing waivers such a big deal for Carolina?
For one, I can't remember a season in which the Canes didn't run into some significant injury issues with their netminders.
Frederik Andersen is coming off of a season in which he missed four months of hockey due to a blood-clotting issue and Pyotr Kochetkov has dealt with minor things here and there each year as well.
Martin provides the Canes with another netminder who can fill in should the need arise and that the team can trust.
In six games with the Canes, Martin was 4-1-1 with a 0.896 save percentage (however he had a 0.922 save percentage in his first five games and it was only due to the final game of the regular season in which Carolina played virtually no regulars that he saw his numbers fall).
If Martin had gotten claimed, the Hurricanes would be looking at goaltending depth of Yaniv Perets, who was playing in the ECHL last year, and Ruslan Khazheyev, who's 19 years old and was last playing in the Russian junior leagues.
That's it.
Nothing against the two of them, but they are both a long ways away from the NHL.
So Martin clearing is quite a big deal for the Canes.
But why was he even placed on waivers to begin with then?
For one, the Hurricanes have to have their opening night roster set by Oct. 7.
An NHL roster can only have a maximum of 23 players at any one time and the team will also need to be cap compliant by that time.
And if Martin is reassigned to the AHL, he will A) get consistent playing time to stay ready and B) will allow the Canes to accrue more cap space for the trade deadline because cap space is accumulated daily and is not just a set lump sum.
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