DETROIT, MICH — The Detroit Red Wings have placed defenseman Jakub Kindl on waivers, per Friedman:
Kindl (DET) on waivers
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 9, 2016
This has been a long time coming for the defenseman. With a logjam on the blue line, and young defensemen making a push for an NHL spot, Jakub Kindl has quickly been played out of the lineup many times with inconsistency.
Kindl is currently making $2.4 million per year, and the Red Wings will only get about $950k of cap relief if he clears waivers tomorrow at noon. So if he clears, The Red Wings will have $1.45 million of dead money invested in him. I think I speak for us all when I say that I’m okay if we have to pay that out. This enables a player like Alexey Marchenko, who has been fantastic so far this season, to have a shot at staying with the NHL club all season.
The Czech blueliner has 67 career points in 271 NHL games, and has been thought of as an offensive defenseman. With so many teams looking for help in that regard, could we see Kindl claimed, and moved to another team?
Before we go jumping to conclusions that Ken Holland gave up Kindl for free, let’s take this into consideration:
Wings tried to trade Kindl for draft pick but couldn’t. Teams wanted them to take back a player in return and they can’t assume more salary.
— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) January 9, 2016
