The Arizona Coyotes announced Monday, after he cleared waivers, that they have sent veteran forward Steve Downie to the AHL.
It wasn’t entirely surprising that Downie cleared waivers, yet, as Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Willis highlights, Downie still has a lot of skill and has done a decent job of showing this year while seeing very limited ice time and difficult usage.
There isn’t significant baggage a team is picking up with Downie, as his cap hit is reasonable, he’s only on contract for this season and he probably arrives as a motivated player after having been waived.
What is maybe more surprising than than him not getting claimed is that the Coyotes believe they don’t have any use for him. His scoring rate ranks in the team’s top six forwards and he’s been remarkable good at controlling play on the team’s bottom unit.
Downie signed a one-year, one-way deal with Arizona on July 1, so he’ll get his full $1.75 million salary while suiting up for the Falcons. Arizona will get $423,924 in cap relief with his contract buried there. That cap relief won’t matter much, as they’re a good shot from hitting the cap.
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