the St.Louis Blues have claimed forward Kasperi Kapanen on waivers from the Penguins. Kapanen, a former first round pick of the club, has struggled mightily in his last two seasons and made his 2 year contract of $3.2M expendable, even desirable to get rid of. The Penguins may be kicking themselves that they couldn't sneak him through waivers, but the Blues are taking on a risk here, claiming a player with consistently unrealized potential.
Leschyshyn is signed to an extremely cheap contract, 3 years at $766K, but every dollar will be important to all teams involved in the trade that will send Kane to the Rangers. Kane's contract of $10.5M is expected to be doubly retained when he reaches New York.
According to other reports, the Rangers will be aggressively making moves within the next few days to clear the space required for Kane - as soon as they do, expect the trade to be not far behind. With the move of Leschyshyn on waivers, the trade becomes that much more imminent it would appear
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