Last season, the Montreal Canadiens were in a situation where they had nine waiver-eligible defencemen in training camp without room for all of them. The solution ahead of the 2015-16 campaign was to place off-season acquisition Mark Barberio on waivers. The move panned out, as Barberio went unclaimed and the Habs began the season with eight NHL blue-liners.
This year, the same strategy was successful, leaving the NHL club with seven defencemen with NHL experience, and one rookie — Mikhail Sergachev — with no regular-season games played. Barberio is a more-than-capable replacement ready in the wings in the AHL should the team need to replenish its defence corps at any point of the season.