Detroit Red Wings Trim Down Roster Miss out on Carrick

The Detroit Red Wings have trimmed their roster down to 25.  They need to get it to 23 players by Tuesday’s 5 pm deadline.

Luke Witkowski, Matt Puempel and Dylan Mcllrath all cleared waivers today for the Detroit Red Wings.  The latter two will report to Grand Rapids, Witkowski remains in the big city waiting to hear if his services will be needed Thursday night when the Wings open the season at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Wings also placed Mike Green on the injured reserve list.  There remains no timetable for his return.  The Detroit Red Wings need to trim the roster by two spots before this evening.  With Witkowski clearing waivers the Wings have flexibility only having to send one more player down.

The Detroit Red Wings won’t have to try to clear another player through waivers at least.  With all the defensemen currently still on the club because of injuries, the Wings will have an opportunity to send Sulak or Hronek down.

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I would expect one of them to be sent down tomorrow.  The Wings currently are sitting with 13 forwards and 9 defensemen not counting Witkowski who can play either.  Detroit may opt to place one of the injured defenders on injured reserve to start the season similar to what they did with Green.

Jonathan Ericsson suffered a minor set back and is expected to miss Thursday’s game; he may be a candidate for IR.  By doing that Detroit would have a roster of 23, with a tonne of defensemen.  Assuming Ericsson isn’t ready and knowing Mike Green is out, Detroit has Kronwall and Daley both questionable.

The worst case scenario the Wings field an extremely young defense core for opening night.  The Wings would need Hronek, Sulak, and Hicketts all to play along with Dennis Cholowski who is expected to be a regular.  It makes sense if two of the veterans practice tomorrow and are ready to play Thursday the Wings will send Hronek or Sulak to GR as their services won’t be needed at this time.

I expect Joe Hicketts to be in the lineup Thursday.  Hicketts has an opportunity to stick with the club depending on his play.  If he corrects his turnover issues, he has a chance to unseat the lumbering skating style of Ericsson or Jensen to play as the Wings 6th defenseman.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were close to placing Connor Carrick on waivers today before the last-minute deal was reached with the Dallas Stars.  Carrick would have been a nice waiver claim for the Detroit Red Wings.  Heck, they should have made the call.  Dallas gave up a seventh-round draft pick that can become a sixth if Carrick plays in 50 or so games for the Stars this season.

Carrick is 24 years old and played in 47 games last year for the Leafs, scored 4 times and recorded 12 points.  He was a plus 5.  Carrick is an above average skater who by all accounts is a great guy in the locker room.  The Leafs didn’t particularly want to lose him but thought wouldn’t clear waivers, that’s why they made a deal with Dallas.

The Stars must have thought it was going to be a chance he wouldn’t fall to their spot on the waiver wire and lunged making a minor deal for him with extremely low risk.  If the Wings had claimed Carrick, he would have been an upgrade to Nick Jensen at virtually no cost, and it would have allowed Hronek and Sulak one more full season in Grand Rapids before more roster spots open next summer in Motown.