The Ducks claimed center Ben Maxwell off waivers from the Winnipeg Jets, a club spokesman confirmed Thursday.
Maxwell, 23, played in four games with the Jets and did not register a point. A second-round pick of Montreal in 2006, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound forward had a minus-2 rating and saw no more than 8 minutes, 56 seconds of ice time in any of the games he dressed in.
Maxwell has seen limited NHL action in each of the past four seasons, playing in 12 games with Atlanta in 2011-12 and 20 games over the previous two seasons with the Canadiens. The Jets put Maxwell on waivers Wednesday in the hope that he would clear and be sent to their American Hockey League affiliate in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Expected to join the Ducks in time for Friday’s home game against Vancouver, Maxwell is signed to a two-way contract for this season and will be paid $715,000 when he’s in the NHL and $62,500 in the AHL, according to capgeek.com.
Maxwell has played in 179 games in the AHL with all but two coming with the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Canadiens’ minor-league affiliate. He has 49 goals and 94 assists over his four AHL seasons and one goal and one assists in 36 NHL games.