Question excellent hockey minds

[polarbare]

Less than an hour ago Chicago Wolves posted that Eric Gelinas was recalled by the Canes; but he had just cleared unconditional waivers. What am I missing?

 

[Tryamw]

Bear's unavailability.

Figure they can terminate the contract In 10 days

 

[CanadaCanes]

I guess Joey Keane has not played well enough for a callup...I would have thought he was the next man up on defense from a recall standpoint for D. After what JB reported below on Gelinas contract, if the need for a D presents itself, I would think Keane or Lajoie might be the guy now that Gelinas has apparently left for Europe. Chatwood did play a handful of games for the Canucks last year and has some limited NHL experience too.

 

[jeffbear]

According to something I saw on Twitter, in order to release him from his contract so he could return to Europe, Gelinas had to first be on the NHL roster. The callup was a detail related to his release and had nothing to do with Bear's situation

 

[polarbare]

Thanks Jeff. I should have been more specific; once he cleared unconditional waivers what right does Carolina have to call him up. It makes a lot more sense if it's simply a part of the release process but I don't think I've ever seen it promoted that way before.

 

[jeffbear]

Apparently, in order to place Gelinas on unconditional waivers for purposes of terminating his contract, they had to have him on the NHL roster. Because he had an NHL contract, not just an AHL contract. So it went ... waivers, callup, terminate, return to Sweden. The Wolves front office needs to hire new communications people because they've been screwing up the language on these press releases and confusing people for no good reason all season.

Although in this instance nobody probably would have cared/noticed except for Bear's situation.