When the Washington Capitals signed Devante Smith-Pelly to a one-year contract before the 2017-18 season they probably were not expecting him to play such a huge role in a Stanley Cup winning season.
He turned out to be one of the surprising heroes of their championship run by scoring seven postseason goals, three of them coming in the Stanley Cup Final series against the Vegas Golden Knights, including the game-tying goal in their clinching Game 5 win.
That postseason performance reportedly resulted in him getting an opportunity to secure a multi-year deal in free agency over the summer. He turned down that opportunity to re-sign with the Capitals on a one-year, $1 million contract.
On Wednesday, the team placed him on waivers in what is another reminder of what a harsh, bottom line business professional sports is.
Harsh as it may be, it’s also not totally unjustified. It has been an extremely tough year for the 26-year-old winger who enters Wednesday with just four goals and four assists in 54 games and some of the worst possession numbers on the team. He also hasn’t seemed to fully capture the trust of first-year coach Todd Rierden after showing up to camp and not meeting certain team conditioning standards. Now he finds himself on waivers.
What is perhaps most interesting about the move is Reirden said the team had initially planned to waive Dmitrij Jaskin but changed their mind, and that there are a lot of moving parts right now. That would seem to indicate that a trade could be on the horizon.
Given that Smith-Pelly doesn’t have a huge contract or cap hit and was so successful in the playoffs a year ago there is always a chance a playoff team could take a shot on claiming him.
Smith-Pelly has 44 goals and 57 assists in 395 career regular season games with the Capitals, Ducks, Canadiens, and Devils. He has not recorded a point in 17 consecutive games.
MORE: PHT’s 2019 NHL Trade Deadline Tracker
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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.