According to PuckPedia, former Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Jordan Oesterle has been placed on waivers by the Nashville Predators. 

Oesterle, 33, split the 2024-25 season between the Boston Bruins and Predators. In 37 NHL games on the year between the two clubs, the left-shot defenseman recorded four goals, six assists, 10 points, 27 hits, and 57 blocks.

If Oesterle ends up clearing waivers, the Predators will then be able to send him down to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. However, it is fair to wonder if a team looking for a veteran depth defenseman could consider claiming Oesterle. 

Oesterle spent the 2017-18 season as a member of the Blackhawks. In 55 games with the Central Division club that campaign, the Dearborn Heights, Michigan native recorded five goals, 10 assists, 15 points, 62 hits, and 97 blocks. 

Oesterle's time with the Blackhawks ended during the 2018 NHL off-season when he was traded to the Arizona Coyotes. Since then, he has had stops with the Detroit Red Wings, Calgary Flames, Bruins, and Predators. 

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Milan Lucic was back on the ice for the St. Louis Blues on Monday, nearly a week after leaving practice early with a groin strain.

The 37-year-old veteran forward, in training camp on a professional tryout, was skating on a line with Dalibor Dvorsky and Aleksanteri Kaskimaki with no restrictions.

“He looked really good, looked really sharp,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “It was good to have him back out there, was making a lot of plays. Seems like his confidence has grown throughout camp, which is a good sign.”

Missing a week of camp did Lucic, who hasn’t played in the NHL since Oct. 21, 2023, has done no favors of Lucic, who is trying to earn an NHL contract, and there’s only a week remaining before NHL opening night rosters need to be set.

“Yes and no. He’s got to make an impression to make the team,” Montgomery said. “He understands that. Whether he plays the last three games or the last two, we want to put himself in the best advantage so we can evaluate him at his best.

“I don’t want to get into those specifics, but there’s ways to extend his time without having to sign a contract.”

Lucic has played in just one of the preseason games, Sept. 21 against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“It looked like it had been a year and a half since he played a game,” Montgomery said. “But his third period was his best period, so he continued to get better throughout the game, which is good to see. The first period, it looked like he was struggling out there, but the third period, he looked like he was playing hockey.”

Also, defenseman Philip Broberg, who missed practice on Saturday, was on the ice in full on Monday.

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The Blues reduced their training camp roster by two more on Monday when forward Matt Luff and defenseman Corey Schueneman were assigned to Springfield of the American Hockey League after each cleared waivers.

On Sunday, the Blues sent 18 to Springfield, which opened its camp on Monday, and sent 2025 first-round pick Justin Carbonneau and 2024 first-round pick Adam Jiricek to their respective junior squads.

“With Carbonneau, I want him to gain that next-play speed and what I mean by that is when the puck transitions from offense to defense that he gets above it,” Montgomery said. “Anyone that’s been a scorer all their life, they hang and hope for a turnover, so they’re in a better offensive position, but they’re also aren’t as good as a defensive position, and when you get above pucks, now you’re skating into the goalie instead of being at the same level of the goalie, especially in the offensive zone. So that’s kind of what we talked about. Watch McDavid, watch MacKinnon, watch Crosby, watch these guys … Aho, watch our players that just naturally, because when he was on the ice with our players, he naturally was the last guy coming back into our end every time, and that’s just next-play speed. It’s just getting used to playing at, ‘I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that,’ and it just happens.

“And then with Jiricek, both of them are elite players. Jiricek’s elite with the puck and he’s just got to learn how to move it so he doesn’t have to take as many hits as he does. And he’s got the mentality of, ‘I’m going to take a hit to make the play,’ but sometimes let the puck do the work and jump by the forechecker, and now to get the puck back, you have more time and space.

“Both of them are going to be elite, NHL power play players. We see all that, but to get into the NHL as soon as we would like them to be, they’ve got to improve in those areas.”

One of the most common frustrations for Ottawa Senators fans in recent seasons has been the inability to watch certain games on TV. You might settle in for a game, knowing you’re a TSN subscriber living in the Ottawa viewing region, only to see the dreaded message: The scheduled program is not available in your region. In other words, the Ottawa program you're paying for in Ottawa is not available to you in Ottawa.

The problem has already resurfaced this year, most recently during Tuesday night’s preseason game in Toronto. Ian Mendes, the Senators’ vice president of communications, addressed the issue in his website column on Monday.

The root of the problem, Mendes explained, comes from how internet providers register IP addresses. Some Ottawa residents are being mistakenly identified as living elsewhere in Ontario.

"Your internet cable provider thinks you’re trying to watch a TSN 5 game from out-of-market, even though you live within a stone’s throw of Canadian Tire Centre," Mendes wrote. "If you try and stream the game on your phone – using regular data – you’ll be fine because it will register that your device is in Ottawa. But try watching the game off Wi-Fi on that same phone and boom, you’re back to the same problem. It might think you’re in Kitchener."

Mendes said some fans have been able to work around the issue by contacting their internet service provider and asking them to ‘whitelist’ their IP address, or to watch the game using your cable provider’s app on your phone using data – and stream to your television."

That latter workaround, of course, only makes sense for fans with unlimited data plans.

No English Radio or TV in Quebec City on Sunday

Broadcast challenges also popped up during Sunday’s preseason Senators game in Quebec City, where fans had no access to English TV or radio coverage. With TSN’s Sunday lineup packed with big events — the Ryder Cup, NFL football, and baseball pennant races — the Senators’ preseason tilt against the New Jersey Devils’ split squad didn’t quite make the cut.

So that's what happened with the English TV coverage.

As for radio, because neither team had an English TV crew on site, TSN 1200’s radio broadcasters — who no longer travel for road games — had no easy access to a video feed to call the game back home in Ottawa.

Ottawa Senators Radio Play-By-Play Team Won't Travel To Road Games This SeasonThe sports broadcast industry has undergone significant changes over the past several years, and it now appears to have finally impacted the Ottawa Senators.

That left the Senators and the station trying to set up their own video feed, a plan that never came together.

"We faced a lot of glitches. Our on-site team and the technical team back at TSN 1200 probably spent the better part of six hours trying to figure out a solution on Sunday. Without getting into all the boring technical stuff, I will simply say we could not provide TSN 1200 with a feed they felt comfortable with having Dean and Gord call the game from back in Ottawa."

More potential trouble ahead Thursday in St. Louis

And the broadcast problems this week may not be over. On Thursday, the Senators play the Blues in St. Louis — and that game also isn’t being broadcast by TSN or any TV network. And in Ottawa, no video feed also means no English radio feed. But they're on it. So please do not adjust your set.

"We’ll try and find a solution that works, but please know we’re trying our best behind the scenes on this stuff," Mendes said.

With the Enterprise Center being a full NHL arena equipped with proven broadcast technology, maybe there’s hope that the hookup will be smoother than it was on Sunday. 

If they can set up a clean video feed, fans could get an English radio call on TSN 1200 and possibly simulcast with video on the Senators’ website, which would suit most fans just fine.

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The Florida Panthers' “2025 Stanley Cup Championship Film,” which celebrates their repeat win, will premiere exclusively on ESPN on Thursday, Oct. 2 and Friday, Oct. 3.

The one-hour film debuts Oct. 2 on ESPN+ and Oct. 3 on ESPN2, and additional airings will include Sportsnet and Prime Video in Canada. The NHL’s YouTube channel will display the film in the coming weeks.

The film will allow Panthers fans and NHL fans to relive the Panthers' glory as they went on to win their second Stanley Cup. 

Per the Panthers' press release:

Produced by NHL Productions, the film unveils the emotional roller coaster, major in-season acquisitions and thrilling on-ice competition on the Panthers’ journey to becoming the seventh team in NHL history to win consecutive titles. Panthers head coach Paul Maurice gets the star treatment as he leads his team through the drama and intensity of a second straight Stanley Cup Final series against the Edmonton Oilers. With exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage, mic’d up moments throughout the rivalry and sit-down interviews with powerhouse players Seth Jones, Brad Marchand, Evan Rodrigues, Sam Reinhart and more, the show gives fans a firsthand look at the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions.

The Panthers embark on chasing the coveted third consecutive Stanley Cup this season, with their regular season set to begin on Oct. 7 against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Panthers will start the season without Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, their top two forwards, which makes the challenge of repeating much harder. 

The NHL saw several players get placed on waivers on Sep. 29, and one of them is a former New Jersey Devils forward.

According to PuckPedia, the New York Rangers have placed former Devils forward Justin Dowling on waivers. 

Dowling's time with the Devils officially ended this off-season when he signed a two-year contract with the Rangers in free agency. Now, assuming he clears waivers, he should start the season down in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Dowling played in 52 games this past season with the Devils, where he recorded two goals, five assists, seven points, 51 hits, and a minus-6 rating. This was after he scored one goal in two games with the Devils during the 2023-24 season. 

In 152 career NHL games over seven seasons split between the Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks, and Devils, Dowling has posted nine goals, 17 assists, and 26 points. 

In what is shaping up to be a race to the bottom in the battle for a roster spot on defense, injured Philadelphia Flyers prospect Oliver Bonk is, unfortunately, missing out on a big opportunity.

Players like Helge Grans and Noah Juulsen, two favorites for a roster spot due to their right-handedness, have largely flattered to deceive or played poorly outright in training camp and the preseason thus far.

Egor Zamula appears to have plateaued, and Emil Andrae has only appeared in one preseason game to this point; he'll play against Boston on Monday night.

An underwhelming roster battle has left the Flyers in a precarious position with only a few preseason games left on the schedule, and you have to wonder what a healthy Bonk could have done for himself going against this group.

Bonk, 20, was deemed day-to-day by the Flyers with an upper-body injury on Thursday, along with forwards Lane Pederson and Karsen Dorwart, and has technically been day-to-day since the Flyers' first announcement on Sept. 18.

Flyers Roster Battles Leaving Much to Be Desired Early in NHL PreseasonThrough three NHL preseason games, several

The 2023 first-round pick was meant to play in the rookie series games against the New York Rangers, too, only to be held out of those before training camp started.

Considering Bonk was also left off the ice during development camp in July to recover from a long season, he's quietly missed a decent amount of on-ice development with NHL coaches and NHL-caliber players this year.

The timing of it all has been awful, frankly, as Rasmus Ristolainen is expected to miss time well into the start of the season (potentially as late as November as of now)

Given that Ristolainen will inevitably return at some point, this would have been an easy opportunity to see Bonk play a month or so's worth of NHL games and how he holds up doing so.

The same premise applied to Grans, in a way, where the 23-year-old is no longer waivers-exempt. If the Flyers want to get a real good look at Grans, there was no better time to do so than while Ristolainen can't play.

By all accounts, it would seem that Bonk is destined to start his 2025-26 campaign - his first as a professional player - in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Most likely, he would've spent most of the season there anyway, but you can't help but feel a healthy Bonk makes this Flyers team out of training camp to glean some valuable experience while Ristolainen is on the shelf.