Florida Panthers Lose Chris Tierney off Waivers to Canadiens

Chris Tierney’s stay with the Florida Panthers did not last a season as he became the second of their 2022 free agent signees to be lost on waivers due to the team’s salary cap restrictions.

On Wednesday, Florida placed Tierney on waivers and reassigned Grigori Denisenko in order to activate Anthony Duclair off long-term injured reserve.

The Montreal Canadiens claimed Tierney on Thursday.

Florida previously lost Rudolfs Balcers to the Tampa Bay Lightning back in November when he was waived in order to pull Aaron Ekblad off LTIR.

The Panthers, using only Duclair’s LTIR cap hit, could only afford 20 players on their roster at the time Ekblad came back from his 11-game stay due to a groin injury sustained in the third game of the season in Boston.

With Patric Hornqvist also on LTIR due to a pair of concussions suffered a month apart, the Panthers can now afford 22 players on their active roster once Duclair is activated on Friday.

Balcers was subsequently waived by the Lightning but the Panthers did not put in a claim to bring him back; he is currently playing for Tampa’s AHL team in Syracuse. He has two goals and seven points in 13 games for the Crunch.

As for Tierney, Florida signed him to a one-year, two-way contract in July for forward depth both with the Panthers and, perhaps, the AHL Checkers.

Tierney initially went through waivers during training camp and started his season with Charlotte before being called up in December. He ended up playing in 13 games for the Panthers, scoring two goals with three points.

Coming into this season, Tierney had played in 561 career NHL games with Ottawa (2018-22) and San Jose (2014-18), scoring 226 points off 73 goals.

PANTHERS ON DECK

BUFFALO SABRES AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Friday, 7 p.m.
• Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida; ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• Season Series (Florida leads 2-0): Panthers 4, Sabres 3 (Oct. 15); Panthers 4, Sabres 1 (Jan. 16)
• Last season: Florida won 3-0
  
• All-time regular season series: Florida leads 53-44-8, 4 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Feb. 28 at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.