Really? You dont think they have agreed to do this on beforehand. Sure no other team picked him. Yet how fast did Buffalo pick him (were they picking ahead of other teams?) . Buffalo is helping Washington (Will most likely get a "favor" in return in the near futire) . The sole looser being the player looking foolish in the other teams jearsy for a day and then gets sent down eventhough he shouldnt have been (Because of the rules right?!) had he stayed with the team he left and immediatly came back to
This "plan" would hinge on 25 other teams ahead of Washington in the waiver priority order
not selecting the player before Washington, when Buffalo waived him, AND the 6 teams behind Washington also not putting in a claim, so they could loan him to the AHL. Not the best plan, imo.
- Effectively, Washington said, "we do not think this player is NHL calibre"
- Then all other 31 teams had a chance to agree or disagree.
- Buffalo said, "We do think he is NHL worthy. We will take him for our roster."
- At the point Buffalo no longer felt he was NHL-calibre (this time around it was actually a visa issue they didn't want to deal with, not necessarily him not being good enough), they put him back on waivers, giving all other teams a chance to put him on their roster.
- If any team felt he was worth it, they could claim him and put him on their roster
- This includes Washington having the chance to claim him too
- If a team ahead of Washington in priority makes a claim, he goes to their NHL team
- If Washington makes a successful claim, he goes there - this is were the linear path diverges...
- a) A team after Washington also puts in a claim, meaning they think he should be in the NHL, and therefore Washington has to keep him in the NHL, or offer him back on waivers, so that that team can attempt to claim him again OR
- b) No other team puts in a claim. At this point, all 32 teams agree he is not an NHL player at the moment - Washington wants him down, Buffalo does not want him on the team, all other 30 teams have turned down the option to claim. The player has, in effect, "cleared waivers". There is no functional difference at that point to him having cleared waivers the first time, and he can be sent down. This is what happened in this situation
This is no conspiracy or circumvention; every team in the League had the same opportunity. It is precisely the purpose of and the way the waiver system is designed,
to a tee, to give the player the best chance of having a spot in the NHL.
Neither Buffalo nor Washington benefitted from this. In fact, you could argue this was a detriment to Washington because they had to do the extra steps, instead of being able to loan him straight to the AHL and because they had to make season-opening decisions with one less player in their depth chart to depend on; Buffalo had the displeasure and inconvenience of thinking they had a roster player that could start for them opening night, only to realize he wasn't a viable roster option and had to change plans. If this was in-season, BUF also would have had the small negative impact of having to count his salary against the cap for those 7 days... miniscule, but still.
No team received a benefit; both teams suffered minor inconveniences at best.
TL;DR: All 32 teams agreed he should clear waivers and not be in the NHL - just with extra steps