Yesterday, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that they were placing goaltender Marc Denis on waivers and earlier today, the Chicago Blackhawks did the same with winger Sergei Samsonov.

Denis was once one of the most promising young goalies in the league with the Columbus Blue Jackets, touted as a “goalie of the future”, shouldering a workhorse load in 2002-03 with 77 starts and put up decent numbers considering how horrible the CBJ were in years past. He was supposed to fill the void left by Nikolai Khabibulin, who left for Chicago after winning the Stanley Cup with the Bolts back in 2004. However, Denis has never really found any consistency and has yet to put up a winning record nine seasons into his career.

He is 1-5-0 with a .859 save percentage and over 4GAA, which are terrible numbers on any team, especially when you’re making close to $3m a season in the new, salary-capped NHL. The emergence of Kari Ramo as a capable goaltender that can be relied upon or at least split starts with the struggling Johan Holmqvist made Marc Denis expendable. I highly doubt anyone will take a chance on him and claim him off waivers. If he’s lucky, he might get another shot at the NHL level but for considerably less money next year. I’d consider him much more likely to go play somewhere in Europe.

Same goes for Sergei Samsonov. Although he put up some very respectable numbers in Boston, where he won the Calder trophy for Rookie of the Year in 1998, and also a good Cup run with Edmonton in 05-06, Samsonov’s point totals dropped considerably in Montreal last season where he had just 26 points in 63 games before being dumped to the press box and eventually waivers. He’s been a healthy scratch for several games this year for the Blackhawks, who really don’t need him with bright young stars like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane duking it out for this year’s Calder. Samsonov doesn’t seem like much of a mentor type either and has just four points this year.

He’ll probably be on recall soon enough but even at half of his current $3.5m salary, he’s not worth it and it is unlikely that anyone will pick him up.