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Edmonton Oilers place goaltender Ben Scrivens on waivers

Edmonton Oilers place goaltender Ben Scrivens on waivers

Goaltender Ben Scrivens has been placed on waivers by the Edmonton Oilers.

The move seemed like it was somewhat of a surprise, since Scrivens, 29, played in 57 games last season for and carried a modest $2.3 million salary cap hit. The point of putting Scrivens on waivers was “for purpose of assignment” according to Edmonton’s Twitter feed.

Scrivens came into camp needing to try to erase the memory of a 2014-15 where he had a 3.16 goals against average and .890 save percentage. During the offseason, Edmonton acquired Cam Talbot from the New York Rangers to become the team's starter.

Also, the Oilers seemed to have insurance plans for their backup beyond Scrivens, acquiring Anders Nilsson from Chicago.

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And Nilsson has delivered this preseason according to the Edmonton Journal, while Scrivens hasn’t been quite as good.

Nilsson came into camp and impressed pretty much everybody, playing 120 minutes over three appearances and stopping every single one of the 53 shots he faced. With that performance he earned his way on to the big club where from all appearances he will back up Talbot, who started and finished both of Edmonton’s final two preseason games.

For his part Scrivens had a decent, not great, camp, getting lit up for 3 goals in one period in his one full game in Winnipeg but stopping pretty much everything else.

Also according to the Journal, Scrivens will carry a $1.35 million salary cap hit to Bakersfield of the American Hockey League.

Oilers defenseman Nikita Nikitin cleared waivers and has been assigned to Bakersfield according to the team. Nikitin was entering the final season of a two-year $9 million contract. His deal will carry a $3.55 million salary cap hit in the AHL according to General Fanager.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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