Pardy and Cormier on Waivers, Jets Last Cut to Come

The Jets put two players on waivers today – 23 year old Patrice Cormier and the recently signed Adam Pardy. With a final cut to go, the options for the team have narrowed to the three remaining non-waiver eligible skaters – Trouba, Scheifele, and Redmond. Reactions and thoughts below.

Adam Pardy was a bit of a surprise cut from this writer’s perspective. He does have a two-way deal, but was signed just this summer and is obviously waiver eligible. More importantly, in the team’s final 9, only four of the players were left handed, while Mark Stuart can play both sides (owing to poor puck work no matter where the boards are), no right handed Jets defenders boast the same ability. In other words, of the team’s remaining 8 defencemen, 6 can play the right side and only 3 can play the left. You might remember that left-handed defender Tobias Enstrom has had injury troubles in recent years. 

Pardy is only a plane ride away, of course, but I had imagined him as a lock on the roster despte playing with all the chaos and confusion of, say, Adam Pardy. 

Patrice Cormier was an obvious cut for the team, as despite his capacity as an AHL player, he is quite clearly not ready for NHL action. Cormier’s career seems to be headed down the path of AHL veteran despite 2nd round pedigree and an organizational push due to being part of the Kovalchuk trade. Two points in 40 NHL games is less than impressive, and though he’s had limited minutes in the show, it’s hard to imagine him playing his way into a better opportunity. He was given a prime opportunity last season with Slater’s injury, and couldn’t convince the coach to let him off the bench. I’ve never defended Noel’s personnel or minutes choices, but in this case, it was clear Cormier was out of his depth and was sent away 10 games later for Aaron Gagnon. That opportunity squandered, and with Lowry, Telegin, O’Dell, and even Klingberg making impressions in camp this year, Cormier may not be the team’s first call-up going forward.

Zach Redmond is likely packing his bags right now, whether the team has made an announcement or not. He seems like the odd-man out. Mark Scheifele is not waiver eligible and has had an unimpressive month in front of Jets managment. But the team doesn’t have a lot of natural centres, and are banking on Scheifele to improve their secondary scoring. Besides, if a team keeps 8 defenders on their roster, it’s not often 5 righties and 3 lefties. 

Trouba is a technical possibility as a non-waiver eligible player, and I still don’t understand the rush to put a 19 year old on the third pairing. But it seems the Jets have moved on to the business of selling hope and Zach Redmond definitely doesn’t make that cut.