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in a quick update Holl has been returned to the Detroit roster, but Austin Watson wasn’t. According to the article:
Oct. 16: Detroit announced Holl has been recalled back to the NHL roster today, suggesting his brief demotion yesterday was solely to delay his waiver exemption expiring and to bank a bit of cap space. Watson wasn’t part of the announcement and remains on assignment to Grand Rapids, so his demotion may be more permanent.
So, for all of us concerned that Holl was playing much better D, the club apparently agreed and wanted to delay his waiver exemption. The Watson send down seems to reflect the opinion that he failed to make the right impact on his opportunity
Here is yesterday’s game summary. Shesterkin was more than up to the task and the Rangers are just in a different class than Detroit right now. Today, some moves were made accordingly.
Justin Holl and Austin Watson were waived today. As for Watson, not a huge surprise. He wasn’t a net positive callup. As for Holl, this seems like a poor decision. Petry and Fischer may both be ready to go for Thursday, or (personal theory) Holl may be sent down to reset the “time clock” on his callup with another day off before the next game. The personal hope is for the latter.
Holl quite possibly played his best hockey in a Wings jersey since his acquisition. Seemed to mesh well with Edvinsson and seems to be a stronger skater at this point than Petry. Gustafsson is likely to get another look if the team goes 7/11 on Thursday but that hasn’t been announced.
If we’re going purely by play, there’s no reason to call Husso back up (if that is on the table), and there’s no reason to swap out Holl for Petry or Gustafsson. As for Watson, if that makes room for Kasper that at least adds an element of potential excitement. Again, no idea on the status of Fischer or Petry. So, if Holl is being moved out to put Gustafsson back in that seems like a bad idea.
The power play is lost. It’s now been quoted a few times that Kane, earlier in his career, thought the newly acquired blue liner was excellent on the power play. Right now, nothing looks excellent on the power play. At the very least swap Compher to the 2nd unit and put Debrincat on the top unit. There doesn’t seem to be a clear quarterback on the man advantage.
Of course, the pipe dream wish is making space for a trade for a Dman. We don’t usually find out that something has been in the works until execution.
Let me know your thoughts. Is this a paper transaction (at least on Holl’s part) or has the team decided to go back to square one with the original waivers?
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