There’s a bunch of Detroit Red Wings-related injury/retirement news via Ansar Khan of MLive.com today and last night. Let’s take a look.
- Kirk Maltby is set to announce his retirement today. The grinder has been a fixture in Detroit for most of his 16-year NHL career and Khan points out that he’s one of only four Red Wings to play on all four Stanley Cup teams since 1997 (the others being Tomas Holmstrom, Nicklas Lidstrom and Kris Draper). Khan captured the spirit of his career quite well.
During his prime, Maltby was a premier grinder and penalty-killer, one of the hardest players in the league to play against because of his physical, agitating style. He was a mainstay on the club’s heralded Grind Line, with Kris Draper and Darren McCarty, for many years.
- In injury news, defenseman Doug Janik was recalled from the minors while Kris Draper was placed on the injured reserve. Draper’s on the short-term IR (seven days) rather than the LTIR.
- Janik was probably called up to shore up their defense instead of Draper’s injury, though. That’s because two Red Wings defensemen appear to be on the mend. Jonathan Ericsson is sidelined with a sore back (though an MRI didn’t show anything serious) and Brian Rafalski will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery at noon today.
Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Franzen-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Hudler-Modano-Cleary
Miller-Helm-Eaves
Abdelkader (ribs, day-to-day) and Draper are out.
Lidstrom-Stuart
Janik-Kronwall
Kindl-Salei
Osgood
The biggest obstacle for the Red Wings seems to be age and the natural increase in injuries that come with it. Congratulations to Maltby on a great career and good luck to Detroit as they deal with allegedly minor injury issues.