Senators' Zack Smith: Surprisingly waived by Ottawa

Smith was waived by the Senators on Tuesday, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reports.

This is a brazen move considering Smith is a perennial special-teams contributor who had 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasonal outputs of 36 and 32 points, respectively, in a middle-six role with Ottawa before he slipped to five goals and 14 assists over an injury-riddled 2017-18 campaign (68 games) last year. It seems unlikely that he won't get scooped up by another club, but stranger things have happened and it appears that the Senators want to rebuild from the ground up after trading two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson.