Lightning Round: Philippe Myers is placed on waivers

Dec 3, 2022 - 1:52 PM

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On Friday, the Tampa Bay Lightning placed their defenceman Philippe Myers on waivers. The 25-year-old defenceman was acquired in the Ryan McDonagh trade to the Nashville Predators last summer. One month after this trade Myers signed a one-year contract with the Lightning worth $1.4 million. Myers played in 11 games with the Bolts this season, scoring one goal and two assists, averaging about 11 minutes TOI, while mostly playing on the third pair.

This move potentially means that the Lightning are trying to clear some cap space in order to activate Anthony Cirelli off LTIR. Cirelli has been practicing with the team recently and even went on the road trip with the Lightning. Head coach Jon Cooper also mentioned that Cirelli is about a week from return last week.

According to CapFriendly, the Lightning also sent Cole Koepke to the Syracuse Crunch yesterday. The 24-year-old forward carried around $842,500 of cap hit, which still needed to be cleared after putting Myers on waivers. Koepke appeared in 17 games this season, recording just one goal and playing fourth line minutes. Recently his ice time also dropped, compared to early November.

The Lightning would, however, need to make another move to make Cirelli’s return real Sending Nick Perbix to the minors or placing Rudolf Balcers on LTIR are the most likely possibilities for the Lightning. The Latvian forward has been on injured reserve over the last week.

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