I think they were hoping to trade him. If that happens, then he would automatically go onto the senior list at his new club.In that case wouldn't the club be better just delisting and rerooking Hunter. I doubt anyone would offer him a rookie spot at this point of time.
The problem with promoting him is that we don't have enough list vacancies. The only way that happens is if we trade draft picks, and end up with less than what we started with (e.g. 8+21 -> 5). That would leave us with 3 "live" picks, and we could upgrade him to fill the last vacancy. That would also require delisting Sig and/or Cheney.