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You can certainly believe this news based on popular opinion, although perhaps not with Pierre Dorion as GM and Guy Boucher as head coach, but Tom Pyatt was placed on waivers at noon today by the Senators:
Pyatt has always been a favourite of Boucher's in Tampa Bay, Switzerland, and Ottawa, and it was immediately clear that Boucher had advocated for him when he became a Senator. Fans who look at the surface numbers thought that Pyatt was a solid depth player in 2016-17 due to the fact that he had 23 points in 82 games, and if you watched him you could see that he had some skill. However, if you looked deeper, you could see that he was getting trapped in his own zone far too often. The 2017-18 season wasn't any better, although he had a respectable 21 points, making him seem like not the biggest black eye on the roster.
However, his struggles this season have been so prominent even to the most traditional of hockey fans. Through 37 games, he has a paltry zero goals and two assists, and is a -16. I normally would never use +/-, but traditional fans will look at that and say that isn't good enough. In fact, this is an instance where +/- actually is mostly indicative of what is going on, because Pyatt has been on the ice for 34.84% of the shot attempts and just 16% of the goals. His +/- shouldn't be all the way at -16, but it should still easily be below -10. His lack of scoring is what is really appalling though, as he is amongst some truly terrible company right now:
After 37 games, he is now 6th on this list but might not have a chance to move up if he is sent down to Belleville and does not get called up (or he gets claimed). Not only that, dating back to last season in 74 games total, he has just one goal. I don't care how good your reputation is, that is not good enough even for a 4th line player.
The funny thing about Pyatt too is that he always had a sterling reputation in regards to his defensive prowess, but he consistently gave up way more shots than anyone else on the team. Just take a look at these heat maps from last season:
This season is no better, as he is giving up the most shot attempts per 60 in the entire league and is also second last in corsi at a putrid 34.84%. Somewhere in the low 40s is still terrible but some will argue that it's not that big of a deal, but
below 35% is what a junior-level player would put up...It's incomprehensibly bad.
You can't convince anybody that the stats he has put up are good, and perhaps Dorion was finally convinced of that. Or he might have simply looked at his zero goals and thought that wasn't good enough. Whatever the rationale, it was a good move to finally waive Pyatt, I just hope that this isn't a Zack Smith scenario where he still ends up staying with the team afterwards. It has been a whirlwind to see Boucher scratch Pyatt for the first time just a few weeks ago to now potentially seeing him off the roster completely. He is a UFA at seasons end, and with Boucher probably fired by the end of the season, I'd be shocked if Pyatt comes back. Furthermore, I can easily see Pyatt never playing in the NHL past this season considering he had to play in Europe for two years before being a Senator.
As with any player placed on waivers or bought out, I don't take pleasure in seeing a player get cut from a team, and it's hard to comment exactly on what kind of person he was off the ice. Having said that, the NHL is a business, and Pyatt simply wasn't playing well enough for the Senators to justify playing him.
One implication from this move is that JG Pageau will be returning soon. Bruce Garrioch said he was close to coming back, so I doubt there will be any call-up to counteract the Pyatt move:
It will be nice to have him back soon, and the added depth will be very welcomed.
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