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Red Wings' Kirk Maltby Announces Retirement (Video)

The Red Wings' Kirk Maltby announced his retirement from the NHL on Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena.

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12 Total Updates since September 30, 2010
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Kirk Maltby To Announce Retirement Later Today

Ansar Khan is reporting that Kirk Maltby has decided to retire and will officially announce his decision at 5:30 p.m. today. Maltby had been contemplating retirement after not making the Red Wings and being assigned to Grand Rapids. Rather than continue his playing career in the AHL, Maltby has decided to hang up the skates.

Maltby entered the NHL in the early 90s and joined the Red Wings in the 1995-96 season after Edmonton traded him. He went on to spend the next 13 seasons with the Red Wings, most notably as a member of the Grind Line with Kris Draper and Darren McCarty.

During his career, Maltby helped the Red Wings win four Stanley Cup titles (1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008). He played in more than 1,000 games in 17 years in the league and is one of the beloved Wings from the last two decades.

Ken Holland has hinted that Maltby has a job as a scout available to him upon retirement, so it will be interesting to see if he does in fact take it. I'm sure we will find out more during Maltby's announcement later today.

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Kirk Maltby, Derek Meech Clear Waivers, Assigned To Grand Rapids

Kirk Maltby and Derek Meech, who were placed on waivers by the Red Wings earlier this week, have cleared waivers. As a result, the Wings assigned both players to Grand Rapids.

Although Meech is for sure headed to Grand Rapids, things aren't as certain with Maltby, who may just retire rather than continue his career in the AHL.

General manager Ken Holland said today that Maltby "is taking a day to decide." His options are either to go to Grand Rapids or to retire.

If a forward goes down with an injury, Maltby would likely get the call up from Grand Rapids, so it'd be nice if he keeps playing. It's completely understandable if he opts for retirement, though. Having to play in the AHL after such a long career in the NHL can't be easy, so whatever Maltby decides will make sense for him.

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Doug Janik, Joey MacDonald Assigned To Grand Rapids

Continuing to get closer to finalizing their roster, the Red Wings assigned two more players to Grand Rapids on Tuesday.

The Detroit Red Wings have assigned defenseman Doug Janik and goalie Joey MacDonald to the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins.

Neither player was expected to make the Red Wings, so these two moves come as no surprise. Janik will serve as veteran defensive depth down in Grand Rapids, as will MacDonald for the goalie position.

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Tampa Bay Lightning Claim Mattias Ritola

The Red Wings had to put Mattias Ritola on waivers because that was the only way he could be sent down to Grand Rapids. The hope was that Ritola would clear waivers and be able to spend another year developing in Grand Rapids. Unfortunately for Detroit, Steve Yzerman and the Tampa Bay Lightning kept that from happening by claiming Ritola.

What this means is that Ritola is now a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is no longer a part of the Red Wings' organization, which is a bit disappointing.

He was a fourth-round pick in 2005 and had potential. That potential just never showed when he got opportunities with the Red Wings, and there simply wasn't room on the roster for Ritola. As a result, the Wings' only option was to expose him to the waiver wire, and Yzerman and the Lightning jumped at the opportunity to pick him up.

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Mattias Ritola Placed On Waivers By Red Wings

With the roster needing to be trimmed down to 23 players by Wednesday afternoon, the Red Wings got a step closer to finalizing their team by placing forward Mattias Ritola on waivers.

If Ritola clears waivers -- teams have until noon on Tuesday to put in a roster claim -- then he will be assigned to Grand Rapids like many other players have recently. If a team does claim him, then he will no longer be a part of the Wings' organization going forward.

For Detroit, the hope is that Ritola will clear waivers and be able to spend more time in Grand Rapids. They're not ready to give up on him as a player, but going through waivers is his only route to Grand Rapids.

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Red Wings Send 12 Players To Grand Rapids

The Red Wings' roster is down to 29 players after 12 more were assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins on Sunday:

Forwards: Joakim Andersson, Willie Coetzee, Cory Emmerton, Chris Minard, Jordan Owens, Francis Pare, Jamie Tardif, Tomas Tatar

Defensemen: Brian Lashoff, Logan Pyett, Brendan Smith

Goalies: Thomas McCollum

The Wings will finalize their roster in the coming days with the regular season beginning on Friday.

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Tomas Tatar Among Group Sent To Grand Rapids

The Detroit Red Wings further trimmed down their preseason roster today, sending five more prospects back to AHL-Grand Rapids.

Among them was highly touted Slovakian talent Tomas Tatar. Detroit drafted Tatar 60th overall in the 2009 NHL Entry draft, but they obviously felt the 19-year-old wasn’t quite ready for NHL play. The Wings are overloaded at forward anyway, so it’s really no surprise.

In addition to Tatar, the Wings sent forwards Francis Pare, Brent Raedeke and Jamie Johnson as well as goaltender Jordan Pearce to the Griffins. The move leaves the team with 35 players on their roster.

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