Landon Ferraro on Waivers

J.J. FromKansas

• 1 min read Front Page

Happy Saturday, folks. The sun is shining (whether you see it or not) and the temperatures are dropping. Hey, speaking of things dropping:

Can't believe the Leafs waived Granwhoever

Well this answers the question about what the Wings are going to do when Landon Ferraro is healthy enough to return from injured reserve. Ken Daniels & Mickey Redmond said during the broadcast on Friday night that Ferraro would be returning from a knee injury suffered in Toronto on November 6th within the next week. Now we're sure he's ready to return now.

With the recent return of Brad Richards, the Wings had to return Andreas Athanasiou to Grand Rapids. With Ferraro coming off IR, they were out of forwards with waiver exemption on their 23-man roster. Currently Tomas Jurco is in Grand Rapids on a conditioning stint, but he still counts as a roster player for the Wings during this time. There was not a way of returning Ferraro without either waiving a forward or sending down Alexey Marchenko.

Ferraro has zero points and a -3 rating through ten games for the Red Wings this season. The other forward who was a potential waiver victim is Joakim Andersson. Andersson has zero points and a +1 rating through 11 games. Truth be told, neither player was really tearing much of anything up, though I think Ferraro is a bit more popular with the fans.

All-in-all, I think the Wings made this move because they feel Ferraro is less likely to be claimed off waivers immediately coming off a knee injury. Neither he nor Andersson would be much of a loss to the organization, but losing a player for nothing isn't what the Wings want to do.

We'll know tomorrow at noon (or shortly thereafter) whether any team has claimed Ferraro. If he is claimed, he'll have to take up a space on that team's 23-man roster. I'm not sure how many teams are clamoring for fourth liners, but after New Jersey claimed Bobby Farnham from Pittsburgh earlier this season, anything is possible.