Questionable waiver move puts former first-rounder on the Maple Leafs radar

On Friday, the New Jersey Devils made a bit of a surprising move as they placed young defenseman Dennis Cholowski on waivers as they look to make some changes to their lineup.

It's a bit shocking considering that New Jersey has been dealing with several injuries to their blueline and it feels like having more bodies than not is a positive however it seems like the team decided to go in a different direction.

He is expected to be assigned to Utica however if the Maple Leafs were proactive, they could look to claim him and right now; they could certainly use him.

With the news Chris Tanev may be out for the year, and questions about Jake McCabe and several other potential injuries waiting to happen, having a cheap body off waivers like Troy Stecher would be great.

Sure he isn't the puck-mover Stecher is but he would offer a lot of help being the depth shutdown guy Toronto needs right now and would mark an improvement defensively over Philippe Myers.

Cholowski, 27, has 41 points in 171 games (13 goals, 28 assists) to go along with a minus-59 and 165 blocks.

While he wouldn't exactly be a needle-mover, Cholowski would add a bit more youth to the blueline on the cheap and as always, Toronto would love to add another 6'2, 210 pound bruiser to their lineup. All they need him to do is play big, block shots and make minimal errors.

Teams will have 24 hours to claim Cholowski if they are interested, and Toronto will need to get lucky that he doesn't get picked up elsewhere, and it's also quite possible the team passes over him as well.

But as desperate as they are for defensive insurance it might not be a bad call to see if Cholowski would fit into Craig Berube's plans.

More details to come.

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