Brian Rolston on Waivers- What happens now?

The big news today would be the Devils placing overpaid winger Brian Rolston on waivers (according to TSN's Bob McKenzie). Yes, Rolston is a 35+ contract, meaning yes, his cap hit still sticks with the team if he's sent to Albany. The only way to remove his cap hit would be trading him or expecting someone else to claim him off waivers.Tom Gulitti has also mentioned that Lamoriello has no plans right now of placing Rolston on re-entry waivers.

Rolston has been a point of discussion due to his albatross cap hit- Tom mentioned in an earlier post that Rolston could be one of the cap casualties, and Matt had a post about the implications if the Devils waived Rolston at the start of the year (as a solution to getting under the salary cap). While Matt's post did talk about scenarios early on in the season and is still relevant, there are some differences from his post then and the situation now. Teams are trying to get themselves ahead of each other in the hunt for a playoff spot, and adding a big winger who could contribute offensively (a change of scenery might help, who thought Alex Tanguay would be 2nd on the Flames in scoring) and is decent defensively could be a coup if they give up very little. In addition, the massive $5.062 million cap hit on Rolston's contract has gone down to $3.203 mil (due to games played) and Salary down to $3.170 mil, and that value will be halved if he's placed on re-entry waivers.

If he is to be placed on re-entry waivers, he could be an interesting option for some teams, and much cheaper- there are rumors about the St. Louis Blues trading for Alex Kovalev, an equally maligned forward who's infinitely lazier than Rolston and has a similar cap hit ($5 million/year on the dot). If Kovalev is traded before he is, then Rolston could be a backup plan for teams that need a lazy forward. While the 2nd year is going to be a problem, some teams probably wouldn't mind having a useful two-way forward who can play on both wings around. His big shot is also attractive for teams that want to destroy their own endboards improve their powerplay as well, or are looking for a point man on the powerplay.

Personally, I think nothing's going to come of this right now. Tom Gulliti tweeted that if Rolston goes through waivers unclaimed, he will be in the lineup Wednesday. Seeing as no team would want to touch an underperforming overpaid forward (unless they were extremely desperate), I think Rolston remains a Devil for now. That and waiving Rolston isn't going to solve any problems. His production hasn't been there, but he's still a serviceable forward (overpaid, but still serviceable) and the chances of him getting claimed off (re-)entry waivers right now are pretty slim. If you ask me, Rolston's not the problem.

With that in mind, what do you think of this news? Leave your thoughts in the comments section and vote in the poll.