Despite signing forward Alex Galchenyuk when the NHL’s Free Agency period opened, the Arizona Coyotes mysteriously waived him on Thursday, the team announced.
“The Arizona Coyotes have placed forward Alex Galchenyuk on unconditional waivers for purposes of terminating his contract,” the organization wrote in a Twitter statement. “The Club will have no further comment at this time.”
Galchenyuk was signed to a one-year, two-way deal on July 1 that was set to pay him $775,000 at the NHL level and $225,000 in the American Hockey League.
The 29-year-old Wisconsin native recently played for the Colorado Avalanche, where he didn’t record a single point over 11 games with the team. He scored 16 goals and 42 points in 42 American Hockey League games with the Colorado Eagles in during the 2022-23 season.
It is certainly an intriguing storyline to watch in Arizona, and the National Hockey League Player’s Association is reportedly “reviewing the matter” according to a tweet from Craig Morgan of PHNXSports.com.
Galchenyuk’s rights were traded from the Avalanche to the Nashville Predators in the deal that sent Ryan Johansen to Denver. It was reported that the Preds didn’t have any interest in signing the American, and the move was done to get the Avalanche to stay under the maximum-allowable 50-player contract limit.
The former No. 3 overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft has really struggled to make an impact at the NHL level, although the Coyotes waiving him after signing him just 12 days earlier is certainly fishy. The forward has amassed 146 goals and 207 assists in 654 National Hockey League games.
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