There was another development in Mark Streit’s future in the NHL on Sunday, as he was reportedly placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a mutual contract termination.
The 39-year-old defenseman was placed on waivers by the Montreal Canadiens earlier this week. He wasn’t claimed and wasn’t going to report to the American Hockey League.
From a “special” return to Montreal this summer to unconditional waivers in only a few months.
There are still options available to him, and, according to recent reports, that would include possibly playing for Switzerland in the 2018 Olympics, in a year when the NHL will not send players to compete for their countries.
Streit has enjoyed an impressive NHL career when you think about how it started.
Already with previous experience playing professional in Switzerland, he was selected by the Habs ... in the ninth round of the 2004 draft. He’s actually one of five players taken in that round to play more than 200 games in the big league, though with 434 points, he’s certainly the most productive, recording 62 points during the 2007-08 season.
The NHL Draft no longer goes nine rounds. It hasn’t since 2005, when it was reduced to seven rounds.
If this is the end to his NHL career -- and that would appear likely -- he’ll move on having been a part of the Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins last June.
This move comes only a few months after the Habs decided to ink Streit to a one-year, $1 million deal -- with a cap hit of $700,000 -- in a bid to replace Andrei Markov on the blue line.
Per CapFriendly, they’ll save more than $650,000 against the salary cap for this season. They now have about $8.3 million in cap space.
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Cam Tucker is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @CamTucker_Sport.
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