Senators make immediate move after losing Merilainen on waivers

The Ottawa Senators had a busy Friday afternoon. GM Steve Staios was forced to make an immediate move following a tough decision from earlier in the week.

Let’s start from the beginning. As the club began whittling down its training camp roster, one of the camp casualties was goaltender Leevi Merilainen. The Senators placed the Finnish netminder on waivers after choosing to go with Linus Ullmark and Samuel Ersson as the team’s tandem.

Well, it just so happened that Merilainen was claimed by the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.

Now, it’s safe to say that the Senators figured that Merilainen would clear. And if he had, the organization would have had its starter earmarked for Belleville.

Since that wasn’t the case, Staios had to scramble to find an alternative. And it just so happened that the Tampa Bay Lightning had waived a goalie of their own the day before. We’re talking about Jonas Johansson.

Johansson had been the backup to Andrei Vasilevskiy for the last couple of seasons. However, the acquisition of Dennis Hildeby from the Toronto Maple Leafs this past offseason made Johansson expendable. And so, the Bolts also figured that Johansson was expendable.

And it was Johansson who became Merilainen’s replacement.

The Senators acquired the Swedish netminder for future considerations. In other words, the Senators didn’t actually pay anything for Johansson. We could say that the moves ended up canceling each other out.

Johansson is nothing more than AHL-level depth

Make no mistake. The 31-year-old is naught more than depth at the AHL level. He could get the chance to be the starter in Belleville. But he doesn’t figure into the Senators’ plan unless one of Ullmark or Ersson goes down.

That was the plan with Merilainen. And that was the risk the organization took when it placed Merilainen on waivers.

That’s fine. The Senators were fortunate to get Johansson for essentially nothing.

The former third-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 2014 appeared in 25 games last season. He posted a 3.29 GAA and an .884 GAA. The numbers are hardly exciting, but seemingly good enough to be an NHL-level backup.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Senators don’t really have a reliable AHL starter. The Sens have Vadim Zherenko, a former St. Louis Blues seventh-rounder, on a Professional Tryout (PTO). Assuming the Sens sign him to play in the AHL, Ottawa would still need someone to be the main guy in Belleville.

That’s Johansson now. And he becomes the organization’s third-stringer.

As for Merilainen, he should get a shot to actually play in the NHL in Vancouver. Thatcher Demko, assuming he’s healthy, should be the starter until he goes down eventually. Now, at the moment, Demko is out of the picture. So, it’ll be Kevin Lankinen who’ll start. After him, it’s anyone’s guess.

That’s where Merilainen will come into the picture. Assuming Demko can’t go, Merilainen could be the backup to Lankinen.

When Demko returns, Merilainen will likely go back to the AHL. If Merilainen hits the waiver wire again, the Senators could re-claim him.

That would certainly be an interesting turn of events.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow