HSJ: Red Wings waive Ouellet for buyout purposes

Per the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

The Detroit Red Wings are parting with Xavier Ouellet.

General manager Ken Holland told the Free Press that Ouellet is being placed on waivers to enable a buyout.

It has been clear for some time Ouellet, 24, no longer fit into the Wings’ plans. He played only 45 games in 2017-18, unable to gain a foothold and passed on the depth chart by Nick Jensen.

It’ll cost roughly $166,000 against the salary cap next season and $266,000 the following season. The benefit is it clears a roster spot. The Wings are banking that at least one prospect from a group that includes Dennis Cholowski, Filip Hronek, Libor Sulak and Joe Hicketts will push for a spot in Detroit out of training camp this autumn.

…

They are in contract talks to re-sign Mike Green, who is a pending unrestricted free agent. The issue is the length of the deal – the Wings would prefer to keep Green at two years, where he’s looking for more security.

Ouellet, yesterday:

 

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.

10 thoughts on “HSJ: Red Wings waive Ouellet for buyout purposes”

  1. Not going to lie, this bums me out. I was super high on XO, and Sproul watching them in Juniors after they got drafted. Damn, just damn

    1. I credit the failure of both of these guys to the mis-coaching of mini-Mike and his staff. These guys played very well together and less so with others. Blashill cannot do things in a manner that requires him to eat a bit of crow. He is as stubborn as big Mike.

      Now let us allow Green to be in the past. Bring on three of the kids from Grand Rapids and hope they can do the job. They can’t be any worse than the carry over defense.

  2. I’m surprised they couldn’t work out some kind of trade for a bag of pucks with Montreal for Save Your Wallet. They love French named players.

  3. So…. What is the point of adding his tweet from the night before to this story? Is HSJ enjoying a chance to kick a man while hes down?

  4. https://www.capfriendly.com/players/xavier-ouellet

    I know everyone is high on this draft (second number 1 should have been a dman IMHO) but this is another asinine move by Holland. The kid is only 24. Get rid of the larger baggage now while all your future stars are not making big money.
    Wait until Zadina’s contract talks start in a few years, Holland thought he had a tough time with AA and Mrazek. Better rid some old big payroll now to pay these kids. By then the BO penalties will be gone.

  5. At first I thought, “why not wait until fall and if he cleared waivers then…send him to GR?”…..but then I realized they already have a bunch of D in GR and would have to send someone to Toledo. Until Kronwall retires and Ericsson’s contract expires, the Wings are stuck with those two. Neither are tradable. You know neither will be healthy scratches either. Blashill will keep playing “the veterans”. It’s cheaper to buy out X than Ericsson, which is infuriating. At least if they don’t sign Green there will be a spot for Hicketts or Hronek. I would like to see both of them with the Wings in October.

    1. Mr. Green will take less pay to play on a win now team. xfingersx

      Vegas! Make an offer….

  6. And now Russo is gone according to the red wings facebook.

    Kenny flushing no future players down the toilet. I thought we wanted to clear out the useless junk on the d corps? :/

  7. just wow … buy-out is a bit harsh.

    I know XO is about a step slow and doesn’t always make the quickest decisions, but neither does Lashoff and they kept him in the system all these years.

    Kinda surprised by the choice of players bought out but someones gotta go to make room for “the kids”.

  8. I liked XO in the little I saw of him,
    although I guess the speed of the game is going
    to be passing by some formerly touted picks.

    If you don’t have a dimension other than being
    a decent all-around character player, a guy like
    Jensen gets the edge.

    I hope he finds a spot as a full time player in the league.

    I like Frk, too. And wouldn’t mind seeing him come back.

    But I can’t complain! The team is making decisions and starting
    to clear space for more younger players to get opportunities earlier than used to be the case around here. That’s overdue and welcome. Not drafting an impact defenseman makes it even more important that the best prospects get a chance to play, now.

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