Two NHL players placed on waivers for Dec. 2

Just two players hit the NHL waiver wire on Tuesday, as the Utah Mammoth waived veteran forward Kevin Rooney, while the Tampa Bay Lightning placed forward Niko Huuhtanen on waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract.

No players were placed on the waiver wire on Monday, so there were no players claimed or cleared on Tuesday.

Rooney is a veteran journeyman center who has had stints with the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers and Calgary Flames before he joined the Mammoth. For his career, he’s appeared in 331 regular season games and recorded 33 goals and 28 assists for 61 points.

A reliable defensive presence and penalty killer in a bottom-six role, Rooney appeared in one game with Utah this year, scoring a goal in a 4-3 loss to Dallas on Black Friday. The Mammoth got positive injury news when NHL insider Frank Seravalli reported that star center Cooley avoided a major injury after a hit to the leg on Saturday.

As for Huuhtanen, Tampa Bay’s seventh round pick from the 2021 NHL Draft had appeared with both of the team’s minor league affiliates this season, posting three assists in five games with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch while also playing in one contest for the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears.

Huuhtanen was a star for Jukurit of Finland’s top professional league Liiga as recently as the 2023-24 campaign, when he tallied 46 points in 52 appearances for the club. The six-foot-three winger made the leap to North America at the end of that year, skating in four Calder Cup Playoff games for the Crunch.

Last season, his first full year in North America, he racked up 20 points in 51 games played for Syracuse. Given the news that the purpose of the move is to terminate his contract, it seems likely that Huuhtanen will pursue a playing opportunity in Europe.