Modem reclamation systems and methods for optimizing optical modem use in a network include determining costs and capacity range for Lx adjacencies in the network based on Lx information and L0 information, wherein Lx is a digital layer with routed traffic and L0 is a media layer with optical modems that are reclaimed when their utilization is reduced in the digital layer; determining an order of Lx connection moves that minimizes the costs of the Lx adjacencies, to reclaim or minimize the optical modem use; and performing the Lx connection moves based on the order and updating the Lx adjacencies.