The Columbus Blue Jackets moved to clear roster space and salary-cap flexibility Wednesday by placing defenseman Emil Andrae and forward Danton Heinen on waivers, via Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
If both clear the 24-hour window, the club can assign them to the American Hockey League’s Cleveland Monsters and free roughly $2.225 million against the cap.
Andrae’s arrival in Columbus was always more about facilitating a larger deal than about locking in a long-term blue-line piece.
The Blue Jackets acquired the 24-year-old on September 28 as part of the multi-player trade that sent Kirill Marchenko, Miles Wood, and Elvis Merzlikins to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Matthew Knies, Steven Lorentz, Andrae, and a conditional 2027 second-round pick.
Toronto had itself obtained Andrae only months earlier from the Philadelphia Flyers.
Tagging rules complicated the transaction; the Leafs were projected to exceed next season’s cap, so Columbus absorbed the remaining years on Andrae’s two-year, $3.1 million contract ($1.55 million average annual value) along with Lorentz’s deal to help the deal close.
That same contractual structure now makes a Leafs claim improbable. Under the NHL’s tagging rules, Toronto would need to clear approximately $900,000 of a one-way cap hit for the 2027-28 season to become eligible to claim Andrae.
With the waiver deadline only a day away, such a maneuver is unlikely.
Andrae has appeared in five games for Columbus this season, recording two assists, and last dressed on October 20 against the very team that sent him to Ohio.
He had finished the previous campaign in Philadelphia with two goals and 13 points in 61 games while posting a plus-15 rating and averaging just over 15 minutes of ice time.
Heinen’s situation is more straightforward.
The 31-year-old veteran re-signed with Columbus in the offseason on a one-year, $1 million contract after contributing five goals and five assists in 33 games with the club last season following a midseason trade from Pittsburgh.
Through the first 10 contests of 2026-27 he has yet to register a point, carrying a minus-2 rating while averaging 10:10 of ice time in a bottom-six role. He skated only 5:05 in Tuesday’s 7-2 win over Chicago.
Together the two moves give general manager Don Waddell breathing room as the Blue Jackets navigate the early portion of the season.
Claims, if any, must be submitted by Thursday afternoon; otherwise both players become eligible for AHL assignment and the corresponding cap relief takes effect.
