From Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press:
#RedWings assign Xavier Ouellet and Petr Mrazek to Grand Rapids, but both can be brought back up for Thursday's game, if 2 other trims made.
— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) October 7, 2014
Ouellet, a 21-year-old defenseman, may have been a victim of his waiver-exempt status. Wings coach Mike Babcock singled out Ouellet and another young d-man who’s been sent to the AHL, Nick Jensen, as players who had good camps.
Combined with Pavel Datsyuk being placed on injured reserve, today’s moves allowed the team, for now, to keep forward Andrej Nestrasil, who would’ve required waivers to be sent to the AHL.
Detroit opens its regular season Thursday at home to Boston.
