Key takeaways
- Before sending a player to the minors, check whether he is waiver-exempt; if he is not, any other club can claim him during a 24-hour window.
- Until November 1, claim priority follows the previous season's final standings; after that, the claiming club with the lowest points percentage at the time of the request wins.
- After a player clears, track the clock: the right to send him down without waivers again lapses once he has played 10 NHL games or spent 30 days on the NHL roster.
- Plan for the 2026-27 changes: a loaned player must now play a minor-league game before he can be recalled, and clubs get five regular recalls late in the season instead of four.
- Use exempt prospects as roster flexibility, because a young player within his exemption can move between the NHL and the minors without risk of losing him.
Waivers are the NHL's gate between the big club and the minor leagues: before a club can send most established players down, it must offer them to every other club for 24 hours, and any club may claim them. Young players are exempt for a set number of seasons or games. When more than one club claims a player, priority goes to the claimant lower in the standings — using last season's final table until November 1 and the current table after that.
The rules are in Article 13 of the collective bargaining agreement first signed in 2013, as amended in 2020 and by the memorandum that took effect on September 16, 2026. The published 2025 memorandum withholds three of its items from the public, so this explainer cannot account for anything in them.
The 24-hour process
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| Request | The club asks the league's Central Registry for waivers; requests are processed every day at 12:00 noon New York time |
| Waiver period | Any club may claim the player until 12:00 noon the next day |
| During those 24 hours | The player cannot be traded or loaned |
| One claim | The player and his contract transfer to the claiming club |
| Several claims | The player goes to the claimant with the best priority (below) |
| No claims | He has cleared, and his club may loan him to a minor-league club |
Regular waivers are the kind used to send a player to the minors during the playing-season waiver period, which runs from 12 days before the regular season to the end of a club's season. Unconditional waivers are different: a club must request and clear them before it can terminate a contract, including when it buys a player out. If another club claims a player on buyout waivers, the claim takes over the contract and the buyout never happens.
A player acquired by a claim comes with a restriction: he cannot be traded until the end of that season's playoffs unless he is first offered on the same terms to the other clubs that claimed him.
Who is exempt
The CBA exempts young players from regular waivers for a number of seasons or NHL games — playoffs included — whichever runs out first. The thresholds depend on the age at which the player signed his first contract:
| Age at first contract | Skaters: seasons | Skaters: NHL games | Goalies: seasons | Goalies: NHL games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | 5 | 160 | 6 | 80 |
| 19 | 4 | 160 | 5 | 80 |
| 20 | 3 | 160 | 4 | 80 |
| 21 | 3 | 80 | 4 | 60 |
| 22 | 3 | 70 | 4 | 60 |
| 23 | 3 | 60 | 3 | 60 |
| 24 | 2 | 60 | 2 | 60 |
| 25 or older | 1 | — | 1 | — |
Two refinements change the arithmetic for teenagers:
- An 18- or 19-year-old skater's five- or four-year exemption shrinks to three years starting with the first season in which he plays 11 or more NHL games; the next two seasons count as years two and three whether he plays in the NHL or not.
- An 18- or 19-year-old goaltender's six- or five-year exemption shrinks to four years on the same trigger.
For a player aged 20 or older, the clock starts with the first season in which he plays even one professional game. And the exemption ends immediately on the game that reaches the limit — the 160th NHL game for a teenage skater, for instance — mid-season or not.
Priority: who gets the player
If only one club claims a player, it gets him. If several do, the CBA sets the order:
- From November 1 in the regular season, the claimant with the lowest percentage of possible points in the standings at the time waivers were requested.
- Before November 1, and outside the regular season, the claimant that finished lowest in the previous season's final standings.
If claimants are tied on points percentage, the 2013 text sends the player to the one with the lower win percentage excluding shootout wins, then the one that earned fewer points in games between them, then the one with the lower goal differential per game — and it adds that these steps change whenever the league changes its standings tiebreakers, applied per game where possible. The Carolina Hurricanes' transaction primer, a club's own plain-language guide, describes the same switch from last season's record to this season's on November 1.
Points percentage, rather than points, is what makes the order fair when clubs have played different numbers of games.
After a player clears: the 10-game, 30-day clock
Clearing waivers does not buy unlimited freedom. Under the CBA, a club's right to loan a player without waivers again lasts only until, cumulatively since he last cleared, he has:
- played 10 NHL games, or
- spent 30 days on an NHL roster.
The exception is the emergency recall. If the player is recalled under emergency conditions, days on the roster and games played on a regular recall do not count; the right lapses only once he has played 10 NHL games while on emergency recall.
The Hurricanes' primer gives a worked case: a player who has already played six games on a regular recall could play three more on a regular recall and still be sent down without waivers, but nine more on an emergency recall.
Recalls, loans and what changed in 2026-27
Emergency conditions exist when injury, illness or suspension leaves a club below two goaltenders, six defencemen and 12 forwards. Otherwise a recall is a regular recall, and two rules limit those:
- Late-season limit. From 3 p.m. New York time on the 40th day before the end of the regular season, regular recalls are limited. The 2013 agreement allowed four. The 2025 memorandum raises that to five, with no more than four recalled players on the active roster at once. Emergency recalls stay unlimited.
- No more paper loans. Under the 2025 memorandum, a player loaned to the minors must play in a minor-league game before he can be recalled, with an exception for a goaltender when his club would otherwise not have two available. Clubs can no longer free a roster spot for a day by loaning a player on paper.
Two calendar rules also matter. From 11:59 p.m. local time on December 19 to 12:01 a.m. on December 28, a holiday roster freeze stops waivers, trades and loans for players on NHL rosters, though recalls are still allowed. And the new agreement widens the players' association's read-only access to the clubs' waiver system from two designated users to five; the union already receives daily notice of every waiver placement, clearance and claim.
Why waivers shape roster decisions
The roster rules force the issue. A club may carry no more than 23 players on its active roster until the trade deadline, and may not loan players if it would drop below 18 skaters and two goaltenders. Every call-up therefore means sending someone else down — and if the player going down is not exempt, the club risks losing him to a claim for nothing.
That makes the waiver table a planning tool:
- Exempt prospects are the flexible pieces. They can move up and down without risk.
- A non-exempt player's value on waivers is a judgement call. The question is not whether he is good, but whether another club wants him at his contract.
- The 10-game and 30-day clock rewards planning. A player recalled for a short stretch can still be sent down; one who stays too long needs waivers again.
Depth charts explained covers how teams decide who plays, and free agency explained covers the other route by which players change clubs.
Roster spots in our games
84-0 Hockey Draft & GM Manager puts you in charge of a drafted club across seasons in Franchise GM Mode, organising forwards, defenders and goaltending and shoring up weak positions; its player pool is built from real players' careers with the game's own ratings, and the hockey draft simulator guide explains the roster logic. Hockey Career Sim 2026 shows the other side of the table: in its fictional league, roster spots and promotions have to be earned rather than assumed. The league and the players' association have no involvement with either game. Our other hockey explainers are collected on the hockey hub, and every management title is listed under sports GM.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean when an NHL player is put on waivers?
Which NHL players are exempt from waivers?
How is NHL waiver priority decided?
What happens after a player clears waivers?
Can a player be traded while on waivers?
Sources
- Collective Bargaining Agreement between National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players' Association (February 15, 2013): Articles 13 and 16, Exhibit 1 (opens in a new tab)NHL Players' Association — accessed
- National Hockey League/National Hockey League Players' Association Memorandum of Understanding (June 27, 2025) (opens in a new tab)National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players' Association — accessed
- Transaction Primer (opens in a new tab)Carolina Hurricanes (NHL.com) — accessed
- Collective Bargaining Agreement (opens in a new tab)NHLPA.com — accessed
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