While the San Jose Sharks have yet to make any cuts to their training camp roster, teams around the league are getting straight to business. On Monday, the Chicago Blackhawks placed former Sharks defenseman Derrick Pouliot on waivers with the intent of sending him to their American Hockey League affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs.
The eighth-overall selection in the 2012 NHL Draft, there were once high hopes for Pouliot to be a game-changer at the NHL level. By the time he joined the Sharks organization for the 2022-23 season, those hopes had all been dashed and he had been solidified as a regular in the AHL and as a depth defenseman at the NHL level. He spent just one season in the Sharks organization, appearing in eight NHL games and registering two assists. He also played 37 games at the AHL level, recording 25 points from the blue line.
Pouliot had one more brief NHL stint after leaving the Sharks, appearing in five games for the Dallas Stars in the following season, but since then, he's been strictly playing at the AHL level. After time with the Syracuse Crunch and Hartford Wolf Pack, he's now rejoining the IceHogs for the second straight season.
