Waiver Wire Roulette: Sabres and Rangers Toss Sheary and Iorio on the Curb

The NHL waiver wire is basically the league's version of putting a couch on the curb and seeing if anyone drives by with a pickup truck. Today's curb features Conor Sheary and Vincent Iorio, while Tyson Jost just watched every team drive right past him.

PuckPedia reported Tuesday that the Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers are exposing Sheary and Iorio to the rest of the league. Meanwhile, Jost officially cleared waivers, meaning the Nashville Predators can safely stash him in the AHL without anyone poaching his contract.

"PuckPedia reported the waiver placements of Sheary and Iorio, along with Jost clearing."

Sheary is the classic veteran casualty of a preseason roster crunch. The Sabres are coming off a 3-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and are clearly trying to finalize their opening night group before they head to Columbus on Thursday. If nobody claims him, he is heading straight to the Rochester Americans.

Then you have Iorio in New York. The Rangers are coming off a brutal 34-39-8-1 season where they finished dead last in the Metropolitan Division. Iorio was just dealing with a lower-body injury that landed him on injured reserve, so throwing him on waivers now is basically daring another general manager to take on a banged-up defenseman right before the real games start.

As for Jost, clearing waivers is a tough pill for a former first-round pick, but it makes perfect sense. He just signed a one-year, two-way deal with Nashville after a professional tryout. Teams are usually too busy trying to figure out their own salary cap math right now to take a flyer on a guy who has bounced around the league this much.

For anyone tracking roster depth for early-season betting angles, these are the fringe moves that actually matter. When a team like the Rangers, who open against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday, starts shedding defensive depth, you want to pay attention to who is actually left to block shots.

We will find out tomorrow if anyone decides Sheary or Iorio is worth a claim. Until then, they get to sit by the phone and wonder if they need to pack a bag for a new NHL city or just figure out the driving directions to the minor leagues.