Five players land on waivers list, including two who are having their contracts terminated

Five players were placed on the NHL waiver wire Sunday. The list included two players who have been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of having their contracts terminated.

First off, Craig Smith of the Boston Bruins, Austin Czarnik of the Detroit Red Wings, and Jason Demers of the Edmonton Oilers have been placed on regular waivers. Demers just signed a new deal with Edmonton for the rest of this season that requires him to clear waivers before he can be inserted into the lineup. Smith is making $3.1 million per season with Boston but is having an off year so far in 2022-23, with just one goal and four points in 17 games.

As for unconditional waivers, both those players are clients of agent Dan Milstein, who told Championat.com that both are returning home to Russia and will sign in the KHL. The first is 22-year-old Danila Zhuravlyov, who is only part way through the first year of his two year entry level deal he signed with Colorado in the offseason. He's spent all of his time with the Eagles of the AHL in 2022-23. The other is 29-year-old Nikita Soshnikov, who returned to the NHL at the beginning of this season after spending two years back in the KHL.

"Gold Star did not represent Zhuravlyov when signing his contract with Colorado, which unfortunately did not fully address the player's interests," said Milstein. "In particular, the contract lacked a clause about the player's possible departure for Russia, which previously prevented the player from returning to the KHL."

He noted that Zhuravlyov will be signing a contract with the KHL's Ak Bars, while Soshnikov will land with an unspecified KHL team "in 24 hours."

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