Are Ridly Greig and Mads Sogaard both headed to Belleville for the bye week?
The Ottawa Senators have placed Rourke Chartier on waivers.
Chartier has been a reliable defensive centre this season, but hasn't contributed much at all on offence. The 27-year-old Saskatoon native has just three points in 34 games.
Chartier's salary and cap hit are both $775,000, which isn't much by NHL standards. But with Ottawa so close to the cap limit, the cap space taken up by Chartier's contract is probably needed to accommodate a corresponding roster move that has yet be announced.
One theory floated by TSN 1200's Steve Lloyd, who has studied the CBA more than any media guy I know, is that the Senators may want to return Mads Sogaard to Belleville so he can keep playing through the all star break and bye week. After tomorrow's game in Detroit, the Senators don't play again until February 10th.
By sending Sogaard down, that would leave the Senators with only one goalie on their NHL roster, which is against the rules. Apparently, you have to have at least two during the season at all times. Anton Forsberg is eligible to come off LTIR tomorrow, but to activate him, they need to find cap space.
If the theory is accurate, another roster move would likely be required because freeing up Chartier's allocated cap space isn't enough on its own. So Ridly Greig may be ticketed for Belleville as well since he's waiver-exempt. Having Greig playing through the break isn't a bad thing either.
Chartier was drafted 149th overall by the San Jose Sharks in the 5th round of the 2014 entry draft. He has a total of four points in 53 career NHL games and will be a UFA at the end of this season.