Nedeljkovic

[VincentVega]

He's been on the top goalie prospects lists for a number of years but now at age 25 with just a handful of NHL games, with pretty bad stats, under his belt, he was waived before the season started and no team claimed him. That sure says a lot to me about what NHL GMs think of him. Is there a reason to continue to hold hope that he might become an NHL starter? Yes, the path in Carolina is clear after this year with both Mrazek and Reimer's contracts ending but the fact that Carolina waived Ned, it tells me he's not exactly in their long-term plans.

[stevegamer]

I can give you 3 reasons. First though, here's his NHL stats:
https://www.hockey-reference.com/pla...nedelal01.html

1. He's 25 and his NHL stats are a tiny sample size, and aren't remotely "pretty bad".

6 games played, 4 starts, 2 wins, 2 quality starts, a .907 save percentage, and a slightly below average GSAA. That's also over 3 seasons, with 1/3 of the games coming in as a cold backup. If you consider that pretty bad, you need to re-evaluate how you evaluate stats.

2. This is a strange season. Lots of players were waived to taxi squads, including a number of useful players, but few got claimed. NHL GM's are notoriously skittish about making claims and offer sheets, so they don't have it happen to them later. He's on the taxi squad as the 3rd goalie, which means he's the #3 goalie in the system.

3. Expansion is coming. Right now Carolina has almost no goalies to expose. Nobody is under contract for a future year. Right now they must expose either Helvig or Nedeljkovic, who are both RFA's and protect the other. So it's either he's a top goalie option for Seattle to take, or he's the guy protected in Carolina as of this minute.

[Axeman33]

Right now, I'd say the apple of the Canes eye for the future is Kochetkov.

I like to think the reason the Canes moved Nedeljkovic off the taxi squad to the AHL is so he can keep playing, but the fact that no one claimed him, and just about every other goalie on waivers has been grabbed certainly could be eye opening.

I don't think Carolina sees him as a long term option anymore.

[VincentVega]

Thanks for your thoughts guys.