30 NHLers placed on waivers as teams prepare for opening night

With NHL teams scrambling to get their rosters in place for the start of the 2021-22 season, a number of NHL hopefuls founds themselves on the waiver wire today.

A mind boggling 30 players were placed on waivers today and without further ado let's get into them all:

Alexander Volkov (ANA), Steven Fogarty (BOS), Aaron Dell (BUF), Jimmy Schuldt (BUF), Stefan Matteau (COL), Roland McKeown (COL), Kiefer Sherwood (COL), Dylan Sikura (COL), Michael Pezzetta (MTL), Andy Andreoff (NYI), Cole Bardeau (NYI), Austin Czarnik (NYI), Grant Hutton (NYI), Otto Koivula (NYI), Paul LaDue (NYI), Dmytro Timashov (NYI), Mitchell Vande Sompel (NYI), Parker Wotherspoon (NYI), Connor Bunnaman (PHI), Adam Clendening (PHI), Gerald Mayhew (PHI), German Rubtsov (PHI), Kole Lind (SEA), Max McCormick (SEA), Joey Anderson (TOR), Carl Dahlstrom (TOR), Brennan Menell (TOR), Brett Seney (TOR) and Jonah Gadjovich (VAN).

YOWZA! That's a lot of freebies!

Among that list, I see a few hidden gems that could be uncovered. Fogarty, Czarnik, Lind, Seney and Gadjovich should all be looked at as potential fits elsewhere in the NHL. Realistically though, nobody from this group is likely to make an impact at the NHL level this season. I will say though that it's a bit surprising to see some rebuilding teams like the Anaheim Ducks and Buffalo Sabres and an expansion team in the Seattle Kraken give up on young talent so easily. In particular, the Kraken letting former Vancouver Canucks 2nd round pick Kole Lind hit the waiver wire is peculiar. 

Another thing that sticks out to me is Lou Lamoriello and the New York Islanders throwing a whopping nine players on the waiver wire! There's always a method to Lou's madness and I'm assuming that this time around he figured at least one or two of his young players might get plucked off waivers, so why not muddy the focus for another team by adding even more variables to the equation?

It'll be interesting to see with so many players hitting the waiver wire just how many get picked up. Tomorrow could be a historic day on the NHL waiver wire. But... I'm not exactly holding my breath, though.