On Saturday, the Detroit Red Wings put 37-year-old forward Mikael Samuelsson on waivers.
While he is the third veteran Detroit Red Wing to be waived this season (forwards Jordin Tootoo and Patrick Eaves were waived earlier this year), Samuelsson’s movement is notable inasmuch as it has nothing to do with clearing salary cap space and everything to do with clearing a roster spot.
As the Red Wings slowly return to health, those currently occupying place-holder spots on Detroit’s roster will need to be shuffled off to make room for returning players.
However, the fact that Samuelsson, and not rookies like Luke Glendening or Riley Sheahan, is now in Grand Rapids indicates that Detroit general manager Ken Holland is willing to eat what's left of Samuelsson's $3 million cap hit simply to clear him from the Red Wings’ plate.
Does this mean that Holland will finally shake loose his notorious bias towards signing over-the-hill players to fill out his team’s roster?
Not to say this strategy has not yielded some amazing results in the past.
Holland has made some ...
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Article written by Matt Hutter
Is Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland Moving Away from Veteran Bias?
January 26th, 2014 by Matt Hutter Leave a reply »
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