Dallas Stars place goalie Anton Khudobin on waivers

The Dallas Stars have placed goaltender Anton Khudobin on waivers, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

This would answer the question as to who’s the odd-man-out in Dallas’ three-headed goalie situation.

The Stars inked Braden Holtby to a one-year deal back in the offseason due to the uncertainty around Ben Bishop’s health. While Holtby and Khudobin were expected to be the team’s goalie tandem, the breakout performance of rookie Jake Oettinger made things more complicated.

Oettinger has posted an incredible .951 save percentage over seven appearances, making it very difficult to justify sending him to the AHL. Holtby has been the better of the two veterans, as Khudobin has struggled to a .873 save percentage over seven games.

Khudobin is in the second year of the three-year, $10 million that he signed back in October of 2020. At that time, Khudobin was fresh off of helping the Stars reach the Stanley Cup Final while in the NHL playoff bubble.

It seems pretty likely that somebody will take a flyer on Khudobin, as his cap hit of $3.33 million is reasonable and he isn’t far removed from having success at the NHL level. That said, Khudobin hasn’t been the same since suffering nerve damage in his glove hand in the Stanley Cup Final. In 39 games since, he has a .899 save percentage, a sharp decline from the .926 save percentage he posted with Dallas between 2018-19 and 2019-20.

If he does clear waivers, Khudobin will cost the Stars $2.208 million against the salary cap as a buried contract.