{"id":913125,"date":"2026-09-28T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/913125\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:42:10","slug":"winnipeg-jets-claim-clay-stevenson-off-waivers-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/913125\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Jets Claim Clay Stevenson Off Waivers \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Winnipeg Jets have claimed goaltender Clay Stevenson<\/a> off of waivers from the Washington Capitals, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Everyone else on yesterday\u2019s extensive list of waived players has successfully cleared, including New York Rangers top goalie prospect Dylan Garand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Claiming Stevenson fills a clear need in Winnipeg for a capable backup goalie. Superstar netminder Connor Hellebuyck<\/a> has requested to be traded from the team, and did not report for training camp. Winnipeg signed Stuart Skinner<\/a> in free agency to cover in case of a Hellebuyck absence, but they did not have an experienced No. 2 behind Skinner.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By claiming Stevenson, the Jets have avoided needing to utilize prospect goalies such as Tomas Milic<\/a> or Dom DiVincentiis<\/a> as their backup.<\/p>\n

Now, both can continue their development with the club\u2019s AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, while Stevenson and Skinner hold down the fort in the NHL amidst Hellebuyck\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

Stevenson, 27, gives the Jets a backup goalie option who is, on paper, an immediate upgrade compared to their other options.<\/p>\n

The 6\u20194\u2033 Alberta native has been a real developmental success story for the Capitals organization, and now the Jets are poised to benefit from the years of development invested in Stevenson.<\/p>\n

An undrafted player coming out of the BCHL, Stevenson played one season of college hockey at Dartmouth before turning pro in the Capitals organization. He began in the ECHL, the professional starting point of other former Capitals goalies such as future NHL starter Philipp Grubauer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stevenson proved himself at the ECHL level, posting a .916 save percentage in 36 games as a rookie. That earned him a spot in an AHL tandem the following year, where he posted a .922 save percentage in 36 games for the Hershey Bears. That year, he won a Calder Cup championship.<\/p>\n

While the netminder took a step back in the year that followed, he bounced back in 2025-26. In 37 games for the Bears, Stevenson went 18-13-3 with a .912 save percentage.<\/p>\n

In his career, Stevenson has gotten into five NHL games and has a .906 save percentage. He\u2019s owed an $850K NHL salary for the rest of the year and can become an unrestricted free agent in the summer. Stevenson is on a one-way contract, so his team wouldn\u2019t save any cash if he\u2019s rostered in the AHL rather than the NHL.<\/p>\n

From Washington\u2019s perspective, this development is an unfortunate one, even if it is the cost of doing business in the NHL.<\/p>\n

Since Stevenson wasn\u2019t going to displace incumbent No. 1 Logan Thompson<\/a> or veteran No. 2 Charlie Lindgren<\/a>, the club knew Stevenson would eventually hit the waiver wire, and be at risk of being claimed. But the Capitals seemed to prepare for that possibility, staffing Hershey with several goalie options on AHL deals.<\/p>\n

Veteran goalie Cal Petersen<\/a>, who attended Capitals camp on a PTO, seems a likely candidate to earn a full contract as a result of Stevenson\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Winnipeg Jets have claimed goaltender Clay Stevenson off of waivers from the Washington Capitals, reports Elliotte Friedman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,14116,48340,754,22073,449],"class_list":["post-913125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-players","tag-waivers","tag-washington-capitals","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}