Toronto Maple Leafs Should Claim Cody Hodgson Off Waivers

It seems like Cody Hodgson‘s time with the Nashville Predators has come to an end with the team placing him on waivers earlier today, but this poses an interesting question for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Should Toronto claim Hodgson off waivers?

The answer to that is an emphatic yes.

Nashville signed Hodgson to a $1.05 million one year contract during the offseason with the hope that he would finally be able to live up to his potential. So far that hasn’t been the case with Hodgson only registering eight points in 39 games, and it’s likely the reason why he was put on waivers.

Hodgson was drafted 10th overall in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by the Vancouver Canucks and was touted as having the potential to be a top six forward. He had a good second season in Vancouver with 33 points in 63 games, but was traded to the Buffalo Sabres for Zack Kassian during the 2012 NHL Trade Deadline.

Hodgson struggled with injuries for his first two seasons with Buffalo, but had a career high 44 points in 72 games. It seemed that he was starting to live up what had been expected of him, but then Hodgson had a terrible drop in production in the 2014-15 season with just 13 points in 78 games. Buffalo promptly bought out his contract during the offseason and was then signed by Nashville.

After all of this you may be wondering why Toronto would ever want to take a chance on a player who appears to be a bust. Well it’s because there is no risk in taking on his contract. Toronto has the cap space for his $1.05 million cap hit and with the contract ending this summer it means that they can let him go if he doesn’t work out. They won’t have to buy him out and be on the hook for the remainder of his contract, and if they want to re-sign him they the benefit of Hodgson being a restricted free agent as opposed to a free agent. And he is still relatively young at just 25 years old.

Coach Mike Babcock has shown that he can get the best out his players. So if there is a chance that he can get Hodgson playing like when he had 44 points in a season, then he will absolutely be worth the pickup off waivers.