Noah Welch to Rochester

Today, Noah Welch accepted a conditioning assignment to the AHL's Rochester Americans.

Due to waiver rules, generally the only way the Cats could have sent Noah to the AHL would have been if he cleared waivers. Conditioning loans, so long as the assignment can be justified, are a very brief way around this.

Any player assigned for conditioning first has to accept the assignment. Assuming he does, he remains on the club's active roster while the loan is active. How long that loan can last is clear in the CBA (13.8), "Such Conditioning Loan shall not extend for more than fourteen (14) consecutive days," so he won't be gone long.

The league has the right to investigate the assignment to be certain that the team isn't simply trying to evade waivers or re-entry, but I think in Welch's case, the Panthers will be alright.

Although he's appeared in 14 of the Cats' games this season, Welch is averaging a meager 6:26 -- or a whopping 8.9 shifts per game. You can make a pretty good claim that a defenseman being dragged along like that has fallen out of game shape.

In Rochester, Welch will get to log some big minutes at least for the weekend, so hopefully the move will keep his spirits up and help boost his confidence.