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Flyers waive Weise as Fletcher keeps making moves

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NHL All-Stars David Pastrnak and Claude Giroux face off on Wednesday Night Hockey as the Bruins head to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers on NBCSN (7:30 P.M. ET) to start the night's doubleheader.

New Philadelphia Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher has some big decisions to make in the coming weeks and months as he tries to get the team out of its current predicament at the bottom of the NHL standings.

Before he gets to the major decisions (what to do with Wayne Simmonds? A permanent head coach? Other major changes to the roster?) he has been taking care of some work around the edges of the roster.

After dealing Jordan Weal to the Arizona Coyotes this past week, Fletcher announced on Tuesday that the team has placed veteran forward Dale Weise on waivers.
[Related: Flyers trade Weal to Arizona Coyotes]

The 30-year-old Weise signed a four-year, $9.4 million contract with the team prior to the start of the 2016-17 season but hasn’t really played up to the level the team expected from him. In 42 games this season he has five goals to go with six assists but has been held off the scoresheet entirely since Dec. 27 when he scored a goal in an overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Given that Weise still has another year on his contract at a salary cap hit of more than $2 million it seems really unlikely that another team is going to claim him on waivers. Assuming he clears, it could open the door for him to be sent to the American Hockey League, or perhaps even a trade in the coming days. If there is a team interested in adding him but isn’t willing to take on his entire salary this could get the steps moving to work out a deal with retained salary.

Sending him to the AHL would give him a buried salary cap hit of $1.3 million for the Flyers.

In his first two-and-a-half years with the Flyers he has 17 goals to go with 17 assists in 152 games. Just for comparisons sake, he had 14 goals and 13 assists in 71 games with the Canadiens and Blackhawks the season before signing that contract.

More: Why wait to trade for Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds?

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.