Thursday, July 28, 2016

Off-season Injury Notes (Jul 28)

The injury confirmation that we were looking for from the Detroit Red Wings came down, not too long after the signings for their 2017 season had completed.  The team's management confirmed that they don't expect either Johan Franzen or Joe Vitale to play this season, as both are dealing with serious concussion issues and they will be headed for the Long Term Injured Reserve, once the season gets started.

Both forwards were injured very early in the 2016 season, suffering concussions and were limited to a combined three games, and both could be in jeopardy of ending their careers.

The Red Wings will get valuable cap space relief, as the two combine for $5.1 million, which will can be aided in the team's ability to hold their 23-man roster under the confines of the cap ceiling.  With these two moved to the injured list, Steve Ott and Andreas Athanasiou come back up to the fill-in spots, giving the team an active 23-man roster and they are only $4.7 million over the cap ceiling without the relief.

There is lots of Summer left, so I would expect the Red Wings to continue fishing out ways to improve their situation, but it certainly won't be easy.

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