Two NHL players clear waivers on Thursday with no new additions

On Wednesday, it was announced that Carolina's Brendan Lemieux and Columbus' Dylan Gambrell were both placed on waivers and given their experience at the NHL level, a claim would not have been surprising. However, as announced by Elliotte Friedman on Thursday, both players have officially cleared waivers and will head to their respective AHL teams, likely to serve as depth options for their NHL clubs for the rest of the season.

Lemieux has become one of the NHL's most hated players in recent years given some shocking acts on the ice, including biting Brady Tkachuk, but at 28-years of age, we may be seeing the end of his time in the NHL as we know it given his major lack of production in recent years.

As for Gambrell, it appears to be a very similar story, with the former second-round pick struggling to produce at the NHL level, and given the level of young talent coming through the Blue Jackets organization, there's no clear path to him having playing time in the NHL anytime soon.

The second part of Friedman's announcement was just as surprising, as no new players have been placed on waivers for the first time in weeks as teams settle in to their regular season rosters for the year.

With most teams in the NHL now playing 3-5 games early in the season, they are starting to see what lineups work and what don't, so expect to see a very quiet waiver wire market in the coming weeks, unless we see some very surprising struggles of questionable moves from teams.