Downey waived. Why?
Word made the rounds yesterday that 14th forward and team enforcer Aaron Downey was waived. Ted Kulfan doesn’t provide an exact explanation other than to say that it’s a “book-keeping kind of thing”.
So for those playing along Hockey Fights broke the news by simply reading the TSN wire and one of the Wings beat reporters tells us that it’s a book-keeping kind of thing. Hopefully that clears everything up. I’m sure this will probably lead to some speculation on whether Detroit will call up another player from Grand Rapids to fill Downey’s slot in the press box.
What we do know
Detroit has just over $5 million in cap space. So they likely didn’t send Downey down to clear cap space. By waiving him his salary will no longer be factored into the daily salary figure that counts against the cap.
There have been no injuries other than to Grand Rapids defenseman Kyle Quincey. So Downey wouldn’t need to be sent down in order to add a replacement for an injured player. Detroit has filled all of their roster allotments by carrying 14 forwards, 7 defensemen and 2 goaltenders. With Downey being waived there are only 13 forwards on the roster.
Bring on the Baseless Speculation!
Some fans will probably hope that Igor Grigorenko is getting a call-up but that seems unlikely given he was just sent down to Grand Rapids. He hasn’t even played a game for the Griffins as their season opener is tonight. If this move was done to open up a roster slot my only guess would be that it would be to add an offensive defenseman to the roster. As Bruce MacLeod pointed out in this post, Mike Babcock used three D-men on the power play:
Notice how Babcock rotated his defensemen on the power play? He’s trying to use just three blue-liners, starting with Lidstrom and Rafalski, then keeping one of them on with Kronwall, then the other with Kronwall. That’s a good threesome if he can manage their time. If he needs to go with a fourth, it’s either going to be Lebda or Samuelsson.
I’ll steer clear of the easy threesome joke and instead focus on how Brent Sopel signing with Chicago probably impacted Detroit’s second PP unit. I have to imagine the Red Wings were going to throw him on the third pairing with Cheli and use him as a point on the second power play unit. With him signing with Chicago the Red Wings were forced to use three defensemen when playing with the man advantage.
Lebda doesn’t seem like an option since he wouldn’t be much of a scoring threat from the point and Samuelsson worked in a pinch in the playoffs; but given the fact Jason Williams didn’t work so well as a forward manning the point, that might suggest that Sammy is only a last-ditch solution. I suggested that Jonathan Ericsson could get the callup with Sopel heading off to Chitown so that is my guess: Ericsson gets the callup, plays a little beside Cheli and auditions for one of the points on the second power play unit.
And that concludes this morning’s baseless speculation on the Detroit Red Wings.
Oh yeah, congratulations are in order to Christy over at Behind the Jersey as her blog was recognized as one of the Top 10 NHL blogs by Sports Business Daily! That’s a well-deserved honor and it’s great to see her receive the recognition.
Aaron Downey Jonathan Ericsson Red Wings2 Comments
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The need for an offensive defensman is the most sane theory I’ve heard so far. Don’t you think it would be Meech? I know Babbles was impressed with Ericsson during the pre-season but Meech is the most NHL ready, no?
Yeah, Meech could get a shot. I think they DO need a fourth D-Man for the power play. I wouldn’t mind seeing Meech and Ericsson get a shot at some point.