Nic Petan, Mason Shaw clear waivers, assigned to AHL

Today is an important day on the NHL calendar. By 4:00 p.m. this afternoon, all 32 teams must be under the $82.5-million salary cap and have their roster finalized as they start to see some real action and the regular season beginning this week.

That is why essentially every team placed handfuls of players on waivers yesterday afternoon, to try and crowd the wire and get some players through that unfortunately will not start their seasons with the first team, but were the last to be cut. For the Minnesota Wild, that meant placing forwards Nic Petan and Mason Shaw on waivers, as both were key candidates to make the team but the numbers just didn’t pan out.

Luckily for the Wild and for us, both forwards cleared waivers and are still going to be a part of this organization and will play in the AHL to start their 2022-23 seasons. And lucky for them, they get to hang around a little bit longer before having to report to the AHL Wild.

Every year with this front office, the Wild have down a “team building trip” whether it’s going fishing or doing some outdoorsy activity. So Petan and Shaw will still be with the NHL group during that time, but will simply remain in Des Moines after the team is done their business there and need to start to truly prepare for their season starting in just a couple days.

Both Shaw and Petan impressed during training camp and the preseason, but with top prospect Marco Rossi making the splash into the NHL and free agent signing Sam Steel being able to play more up the lineup than those two, the room just wasn’t there. Remaining with the Wild are defensemen Dakota Mermis and Andrej Sustr, two sizeable defenders that can get up to speed quickly if needed. One assumption could be that Mermis — or both of them — is here just until Jon Merrill is healthy once more, but there is going to be a large five-game road trip after a four-game homestand to start the season, so more bodies when you’re on the other side of the continent, is a good thing.

Minnesota starts its 2022-23 season hosting the New York Rangers on Thursday.