Brad May has been waived by the Detroit Red Wings. Clearly, the intention is to send him down to Grand Rapids, in an effort to begin clearing space for Andreas Lilja’s return.
The Wings need to clear approximately $1.2M. With May’s salary being removed, they need to clear an additional $750k. TSN’s Bob McKenzie said on Twitter this morning that Ken Holland planned on placing someone on Long-Term IR to clear the rest of the space to allow for Lilja’s return.
The only two players that are “injured” right now are Patrick Eaves (who doesn’t make enough money to clear the needed space) and Niklas Kronwall, who makes $3M. However, if the plan all along was to put Kronwall on IR, waiving May would be unnecessary. Something smells fishy.
Other player that were waived today: Jamie Lundmark and Jonathan Cheechoo. The latter is a former 50-goal scorer, makes $3M, and is signed through next season.
Stay tuned, because more is guaranteed to happen today. The Olympic trade freeze begins at 3pm — and there’s not enough space for Lilja’s expected return tomorrow.