It turns out what goes on the waiver wire in Vegas actually stays in Vegas after all.
It was a wild week for Raphael Lavoie, as his rights got passed around more than the puck on an Edmonton Oilers power play.
A second-round draft pick (38th overall) by the Oilers in 2019, the six-foot-four, 215-pound native of Chambly, Que., suddenly found himself a hot commodity involving a trio of teams on the NHL transactions list, after the Oilers tried to send him back down to the farm team in Bakersfield, Calif., at the end of training camp.
What followed was a back-and-forth that turned into a to-and-fro between the Oilers and the Vegas Golden Knights, who ultimately ended up winning the tug of war by exploiting league rules.
HOW DO WAIVERS WORK?
In order to send a player down to the minors, a team must first waive him, meaning he is then put up for grabs by the rest of the NHL to claim him.
The whole point of waivers is to make sure young talented prospects don’t have their careers buried underneath a deep roster of an NHL team. Instead, it gives them more opportunity to go to a team that could use them now.
That’s how it’s supposed to work in theory, anyway.
WHAT HAPPENED?
It all started Oct. 6, with Vegas putting in a pair of claims for players on waivers, Lavioe and the Calgary Flames’ Cole Schwindt, hoping they would get one of them.
When they ended up with both, they decided they didn’t need Lavoie and put him back on waivers, which led to the Oilers reclaiming him.
At the same time, a third team, this one further down the waiver rankings — meaning they finished higher than Edmonton in the standings last season — put a claim on Lavioe, forcing the Oilers to keep him on their roster for a day before waiving him in a second attempt to send him down.
That led to the Golden Knights reclaiming the player Friday, with no other team showing interest this time around, paving the way for Vegas to send him directly to their farm.
The only way the Oilers could have ended up with Lavoie back in their own minor system in the end was to recall him to the NHL roster and them send him back down after a period of 30 days, which they obviously weren’t willing to do.
So, the Golden Knights ended up with two young players without giving up any assets — players or draft picks — in return.
WHO IS RAPHAEL LAVOIE?
Simply put, the 24-year-old forward led the Bakersfield Condors in goal scoring each of the past two seasons.
He scored 25 on the way to 45 points in 61 games in the 2022-23 season, before hitting 28 goals and 50 points in 66 games last year.
The last time we saw Lavoie on the ice with the Oilers was in training camp, which he capped by scoring the game-winning goal in a 5-4 exhibition win over the Seattle Kraken on Sept. 28.
It was his second goal of the NHL pre-season, on a club where no other player earned multiple goals over the course of Edmonton’s eight exhibition games.
Big deal, you say? You try beating Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. At anything.
UP FOR GRABS
While the Oilers obviously didn’t need Lavioe right now, it doesn’t mean they wanted to lose the chance to call him up later on in the season if they find themselves more in need of his services due to injury or other unforeseen circumstances.
Especially after having lost a couple of other prospects, Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg, to offer sheets by the St. Louis Blues over the summer, right after having proven themselves ready for a starting role during Edmonton’s long run through the playoffs.
Vegas, meanwhile, had nothing to lose by bringing in a forward whose development over the past five years came entirely on the Oilers’ dime.
While it may not seem like the biggest deal right now, while a high-octane Oilers roster is busy making hay while the sun’s shining, no club wants to gaze upon their farm team one day and discover the cupboards are bare.
ALL AVOIDABLE
The thing is, the Oilers had space on their salary cap to keep Lavoie on their active roster with his $775,000 contract, if they were worried Vegas would make a second grab for their guy.
Instead, he will be suiting up — at least for now — for the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League, 450 kilometres across the Mojave Desert from Bakersfield.
“Not much to comment, just that with the way our team was, not having a spot for him,” Knoblauch said. “He came very close to making our team, and it’s another team that felt that they have an opportunity for him.
“Now what they do with him, I can’t comment on that. But, yeah, not much to say.”
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On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge