Red Wings Make Blueline Roster Moves

The Detroit Red Wings announced three roster moves at defense on Friday.

Blueliner Alexey Marchenko has been called up from the Grand Rapids Griffins of the American Hockey League. In 42 games with Grand Rapids this season he has two goals and 15 asssists for 17 points. He made his NHL debut with Detroit last season, taking two penalty minutes.

To make room for Marchenko, Xavier Ouellet was returned to the Griffins. Ouellet appeared in 21 games for the Red Wings this season, scoring two goals an adding an assist as an injury call-up.

The swap is intended to give the Red Wings an opportunity to see what Marchenko can do at the NHL level.

“X played really good the last couple of games, but we made this decision a while ago because we wanted to have a look at Marchy and see what he could bring,” Detroit head coach Mike Babcock said.

Additionally, the Red Wings placed defenseman Brian Lashoff on waivers. Lashoff has been the team’s seventh defenseman even when Ouellet has been in the lineup, appearing in only eleven games thus far this season.

Lashoff’s waiving could be a precursor to goalie Jonas Gustavsson returning from injury. Gustavsson is expected to begin a conditioning stint in Grand Rapids as early as Saturday and the team would need to clear a roster spot to bring him off Injured Reserve.