Waiver Wire Chaos: Red Wings Grab Englund as NHL Teams Brace for 180-Player Purge

The NHL waiver wire right before opening night is a beautiful, chaotic recycling bin. Teams are essentially tossing guys out of moving cars to get under the salary cap and just hoping nobody else pulls over to pick them up.

According to the latest receipts from PuckPedia, the Detroit Red Wings decided to pull over. Detroit claimed 30-year-old defenseman Andreas Englund from the Calgary Flames, while the Nashville Predators scooped up Trudeau. Everyone else from yesterday's batch cleared, which is polite NHL speak for confirming nobody wanted to take on your current cap hit.

"PuckPedia noted that everyone else on waivers yesterday cleared, and projected another 180 players to be waived prior to opening rosters."

Why did Detroit grab a journeyman who played exactly three NHL games for Nashville last season? Desperation, mostly. The Red Wings are currently dealing with an upper-body injury to Jacob Bernard-Docker, and Simon Edvinsson's contract situation is still lingering. They needed a warm body who knows how to throw a hit, and Englund fits the bill after racking up 65 penalty minutes in 52 AHL games last year.

Then you have guys like Frederic Allard, who are caught in the massive wave of roster cuts happening across the league. PuckPedia projects another 180 players will hit the wire before Monday's opening roster submission. That is an entire minor league's worth of professional hockey players suddenly refreshing their Twitter feeds to see where they live next week.

For anyone looking at opening night futures or early-season moneylines, this is the time of year that completely wrecks your depth charts. Detroit is already shuffling their blue line before the puck even drops against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. If you are backing the Red Wings early, just know their defensive rotation is currently being held together by waiver claims and duct tape.

Expect absolute chaos over the next 48 hours. General managers are going to be playing musical chairs with bottom-six forwards and seventh defensemen right up until the deadline. Englund gets a fresh start in Detroit, Trudeau heads to Nashville, and nearly 200 other guys are about to find out just how expendable they really are.