How do you like them apples Las Vegas?
The Edmonton Oilers took a risk by putting former first-round pick Raphael Lavoie on waivers earlier this week in order to meet the opening night roster requirements. They ultimately lost him to the Vegas Golden Knights in a flurry of waiver-wire moves.
Luckily for Edmonton, the Golden Knights seem to have done too much bargain bin shopping replacing Lavoie on waivers yesterday making it possible for Edmonton to reclaim their prospect.
That is exactly what they did.
Playing the waiver wire wrangle
The Oilers, to no surprise, reclaimed Lavoie on Wednesday afternoon.
What is even better is that according to reports, no other team put a claim in on Lavoie making the Oilers eligible to send him straight to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL.
Update: It was noted that another team higher in the standings than the Oilers last season also put a claim in on Lavoie, therefore he remains on the NHL roster
This was a no-brainer move for the Oilers, who were in a prime position to reclaim Lavoie and keep him in their organization. We saw the same thing with Jiri Patera earlier this week as well where the Vancouver Canucks were able to reclaim and assign the player to the AHL without having to go through waivers again.
In this case, Vegas claimed both Lavoie and Cole Schwindt from the Calgary Flames. It appears as if the team was not prepared for both claims to be successful and prioritized Schwindt on the NHL roster.
Time will tell if Lavoie plays NHL games this season, but for now, he is back in the hands of the organization that drafted him.
