At the age of 25, Chris Wideman was still playing for the Binghamton Senators without ever getting called up to the NHL. From the outside looking in, he didn’t seem like much of a prospect.
Because he played three seasons of college hockey and three seasons in the AHL after being drafted as a 19-year old in 2009, Wideman was already a UFA in 2015 despite no NHL experience. Bryan Murray signed him to a one-year two-way deal that gave him a $400k salary in the minors, meaning that they wanted to keep him in Ottawa, but if he had to get sent down he would at least be making decent money.