The Nashville Predators are parting ways with forward Cody Hodgson.
Nashville placed the 25-year-old on waivers Wednesday, essentially ending his short tenure with the club.
Hodgson played 39 games for the Predators, scoring a mere three goals and five assists.
Nashville signed Hodgson to a one-year, $1.05 million contract as a free agent in July. It was a low-risk, high reward contract for the Preds and gave Hodgson, who was bought out of the four remaining years in a six-year, $25.5 million contract with the Buffalo Sabres at the end of last season. another crack at staying in the NHL.
However, it never worked out.
Hodgson was a third-line center playing behind Mike Fisher and Mike Ribeiro with Paul Gaustad securing the fourth-line center spot because of his faceoff abilities. When Nashville traded for Ryan Johansen, who would then take over the first-line center role, Hodgson was squeezed out of lineup. It was only a matter of time before Hodgson would be packing his bags.
Poile on waiving Hodgson: “Really, I think we were pretty honest with Cody and told him that he had to produce offensively, and he hasn’t.”
— Adam Vingan (@AdamVingan) January 13, 2016
In the last 18 games, Hodgson has tallied just one goal. It took 11 games into the season before he actually recorded a point.
Not only did Hodgson struggle to do anything offensively, the center was also inefficient in the face-off dot, winning just 46.9-percent (46-of-98) of draws.
Simply, because of Hodgson’s lack of offense and easily disposable contact, waivers was an easy option for general manager David Poile.
NOTES
In addition to Hodgson being placed on waivers Wednesday, the Predators recalled Kevin Fiala and Cody Bass, reassigned Viktor Arvidsson and placed Colin Wilson (upper-body) on Injured Reserve.
Colin Fitts is a Nashville Predators staff writer for The Hockey Writers. You can follow Colin on Twitter, @FittsTHW, and e-mail him at 22fitts@gmail.com.