Downey released, Filppula the Lesser demoted

Per a James Mirtle (@mirtle) tweet, the Red Wings have re-assigned several players, including Aaron Downey — who has been released from his tryout — and Ilari Filppula — who we all knew didn’t really have much of a shot at the big club:

Red Wings release Aaron Downey from his pro tryout and assign Ilari Filppula (among others) to the minors.

The Free Press continues the story — saying that ten have been trimmed:

Willie Coetzee, F
Ilari Filppula, F
Jamie Tardif, F
Travis Ehrhardt, D
Sergei Kolosov, D
Sebastien Piche, D
Logan Pyett, D
Thomas McCollum, G

In addition, Greg Amadio — who is on a Griffins-only contract — was sent West. Earlier in the day, Jamie Johnson was put on waivers.

By my count, there are 39 players remaining in Red Wings camp (excluding Johnson, who has yet to clear waivers).

G (4)
Howard, Osgood, MacDonald, Pearce

D (11)
Lidstrom, Kronwall, Rafalski, Stuart, Ericsson, Salei, Kindl, Meech, Smith, Lashoff, Janik

F (24)
Abdelkader, Cleary, Datsyuk, Eaves, Miller, Hudler, Draper, Zetterberg, Helm, Bertuzzi, Filppula, Modano, Franzen, Holmstrom, Ritola, Owens, Maltby, Tatar, Mursak, Minard, Raedeke, Emmerton, Pare, Andersson

Of Note…

Willie Coetzee going to Grand Rapids instead of back to Juniors says a little bit about where the organization thinks his development is…

Jordan Owens getting a much longer look than anyone would have assumed he would…

Brian Lashoff, despite his atrocious pre-season performance last week, looks to have leap-frogged Kolosov and Pyett on the depth chart…

Jordan Pearce still in camp, but McCollum isn’t. Just sayin’…

I’m pretty sure Chris Minard is injured — which means he CAN’T be demoted until he’s healthy. Otherwise, I doubt he’s on this top 40 list.