DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today recalled defenseman Xavier Ouellet from the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and placed forward Justin Abdelkader on injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 30.
Ouellet, 21, has skated in five games with the Red Wings this season, picking up his first NHL point with an assist on Nov. 22 at Toronto and scoring his first NHL goal on Nov. 28 at New Jersey. He has also appeared in 18 games with the Griffins, recording seven points (1-6-7), 12 penalty minutes and a plus-three rating. A second-year pro hailing from Bayonne, France, Ouellet has skated in 88 games with Grand Rapids over his last two seasons, totaling 24 points (5-19-24), 34 penalty minutes and a plus-six rating. He also skated in four regular-season and one playoff game for Detroit during the 2013-14 season.
Prior to turning professional, Ouellet tallied 160 points (41-119-160) and 177 penalty minutes in 223 QMJHL games between the Montreal Juniors and Blainville-Boisbriand Armada from 2009-13. In his final season of junior hockey, he represented Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championship in Ufa, Russia. The 6-foot, 200-lb., blueliner was originally drafted by Detroit in the second round (48th overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.
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Well this is fun news. I’m not yet sure where the DeKeyser injury happened in Wednesday’s game against the Maple Leafs, but with the mysterious “upper body”, it could be anything. DeKeyser did miss time last season with a shoulder injury after taking a hard check along the boards against Nashville, so it’s possible that there’s a recurrence of this issue, but that one was a clear-cut case where we all knew the direct cause. I’m not sure what’s going on this time or what would have caused it.
This turns into unfortunate news on two fronts for the Red Wings as well (Not unfortunate that Ouellet is going to play, but why). Diggers reported this morning that Justin Abdelkader had finally ditched his gray non-contact sweater in practice in hopes of a return from his partial shoulder separation. Since Detroit is hoping to have DeKeyser back by Tuesday, the Wings had to make a roster move in order to make space for Ouellet’s recall. Abdelkader’s IR could be made retroactive to his injury on Nov. 30th, meaning he would be eligible to come off IR before that Tuesday game. Since putting DeKeyser on IR would have meant losing him until next Thursday, the Wings went this route.
Now the only question will be whether Ouellet will slot into the 2nd pairing or if additional juggling will be done.
