The Wings have to be 23-man roster compliant and Salary Cap compliant by today. Here we’ll share the news about the moves that happen.
Per Ken Holland, F Gustav Nyquist has been sent to Grand Rapids, as has G Petr Mrazek
— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) September 30, 2013
The first volley comes just before the end of yesterday’s waiver period where we’ll find out about Cory Emmerton’s status.
As for Nyquist and Mrazek, the issue here is the Wings need to make space and can’t LTIR guys who weren’t injured at the end of last season until later. Neither player has to clear waivers, so assigning them both clears two roster spots (bringing them down to 25 officially as of 11:55am) and it clears Nyquist’s $950K off the $2.4M cap overage we had been calculating (Mrazek’s salary also comes off, but we hadn’t been planning for it, so it’s just overcomplicating the math to worry about it.)
When Emmerton is claimed/cleared, the Wings’ roster will be down to 24 and their additional need to clear cap will be down to just about $915K or so.
[Update 12:05pm]
That includes Emmerton. #RedWings RT @TSNBobMcKenzie: Everyone else on waivers yesterday cleared today.
— Red Wings News Feed (@RedWingsFeed) September 30, 2013
This leaves questions for what will happen with injured players like Patrick Eaves, Jordin Tootoo, and Jonas Gustavsson. If the Wings can defend an expectation that they’ll miss 24 days and 10 games’ worth of action, they can put them on LTIR and essentially clear their hit from the books. If they’re only expected to miss seven days, then short-term IR clears their roster spot, but not their cap space.
Nyquist is two NHL games shy of reaching waiver eligibility. There are no recall waivers in the NHL CBA anymore, so nobody has to be exposed to waivers to be brought back from Grand Rapids and there is essentially no waiting period to call a guy back up.
We’ll keep you updated on the various moves as they happen.
[Update 2 12:20]
The #RedWings have recalled goalie Jared Coreau from Grand Rapids.
— The Wheel Deal (@Bill_Roose) September 30, 2013
This one’s interesting. Coreau has a higher cap hit than Mrazek. This leaves the roster at 25 (15F, 7D, 3G)
[Update 2 – 12:52]
Coreau said he’ll be returned to @griffinshockey for Wednesday and Mrazek will be called up then by #RedWings.
— The Wheel Deal (@Bill_Roose) September 30, 2013
Capgeek’s Twitter hints at what the Wings are doing here as well. Essentially, since LTIR dollars are “replaceable over the cap”, and not really cleared to create more cap space, getting as close to the salary cap as possible when you LTIR guys actually gives you a little bit more flexibility while those guys are on the injured reserve.
Also, multiple sources are saying that Tomas Tatar expects to be a healthy scratch on Wednesday’s game. He was working in and out of the Wings’ 4th line in practice today.
Update 3
Holland said Jordin Tootoo will go on IR, but it’s retroactive to when he was hurt (Sept. 19), so he would be eligible to come off any time.
— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) September 30, 2013
This doesn’t really solve anything but a roster spot. If Tootoo is eligible to come off IR “at any time”, then Holland is referring to short-term IR, which doesn’t create any Salary Cap benefit.
Update 4 [5:20pm]
Via press release from the team, the team has gotten themselves to a 23-man roster. They did this by placing forwards Darren Helm and Patrick Eaves on LTIR while Jordin Tootoo and G Jonas Gustavsson go on short-term IR. Both Tootoo and Gustavsson have been injured long enough so that they could come off IR at any time and retake a roster space. Both of their cap hits will count fully for the Wings during this time.
Helm and Eaves will each have to miss 10 NHL games before coming off the injured reserve. Their roster spots are cleared, and their cap hits become replaceable.
In addition to this, the Red Wings have recalled Xavier Oullet from Grand Rapids. The roster currently sits at 13F, 8D, and 2G. According to the latest release, Emmerton remains on the Red Wings roster. He has apparently not been sent to Grand Rapids.
