<P> Waivers is a National Hockey League (NHL) labor management procedure by which an NHL team makes a professional ice hockey player's contract and rights available to all other NHL teams . Other NHL teams "waive" any claim to a player designated for assignment in the American Hockey League (AHL) or designated for release . The process is typically referred to as "being placed on waivers ." </P> <P> In the NHL, each player signs what is, or is a variation of, a standard NHL player's contract . The contract specifies that the team has exclusive rights to the player playing in the NHL . Once an NHL player has played in a certain number of games or a set number of seasons has passed since the signing of his first NHL contract (see here), that player must be offered to all of the other NHL teams before he can be assigned to a minor league affiliate . In the 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) assignment waivers applies only to loans from an NHL club to its American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate . </P>

What does putting a player on waivers mean