As expected, the Red Wings put forward Kirk Maltby and defenseman Derek Meech on waivers today, trimming their roster down to the league-maximum 23 players. The moves also put the Wings below the salary cap, which was required to happen by 3 p.m. tomorrow.
Teams have until noon tomorrow to claim Maltby and/or Meech. If no claims come in, then the two players will be sent down to Grand Rapids. Considering Meech already cleared waivers once, the expectation is that he will end up playing for the Griffins. The same goes for Maltby, who also isn't expected to be claimed.
With Maltby and Meech off the Wings' roster, it now looks like this:
Forwards
Justin Abdelkader, Todd Bertuzzi, Dan Cleary, Pavel Datsyuk, Kris Draper, Patrick Eaves, Valtteri Filppula, Johan Franzen, Darren Helm, Tomas Holmstrom, Jiri Hudler, Drew Miller, Mike Modano, Henrik Zetterberg
Defensemen
Jonathan Ericsson, Jakub Kindl, Niklas Kronwall, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Ruslan Salei, Brad Stuart
Goalies
Jimmy Howard, Chris Osgood