DET claims de la Rose
I couldn't help notice Monday night that for their game against the Canadiens, Filip Zadina, the Red Wings' prized 2018-draftee, was not on the roster, but rather is in Grand Rapids, in the AHL for now.
Which is where Jesperi Kotkaniemi should be, should have been. A good kid, a good pick, but one who'd benefit from playing against lesser competition, playing more minutes.
But no, instead we've roasted Jacob de la Rose on the pyre of hubris, wasted another asset on waivers, after Mike Condon, Mark Barberio, and Brandon Davidson in recent seasons.
And it's not like it was close, like when Calgary almost got Paul Byron through, but the Canadiens, one of the last teams in the waiver rankings, picked him up. Or like when Mike Condon was picked by the very last team to speak, the Stanley Cup-champion Penguins.
Here, the Red Wings, right up front in the waiver order, rubbed their eyes, couldn't believe their luck, and put in a claim and crossed their fingers. Makes you think there were at least a half-dozen other teams that must have put in a claim too.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Short-term thinking. Penny wise, pound foolish.
This frustrates me as all hell. The only reason you pick up a Tomas Plekanec and a Matthew Peca and a Xavier Ouellet for cheap as UFAs in July is so they'll be complementary pieces on your roster, pieces you can send down to the minors, pieces you can waive. They're smart pickups if you can get some miles out of them, and then down the road trade to contenders as the playoffs approach, like the Leafs used to do with Daniel Winnik. You don't stake your future on them, and let valuable young players and trade chips like Jacob de la Rose out the door as a result.
Watch tonight as two Canadiens go down with a pulled hamstring and a sore wrist, and we'll now be short a body, and find that there was no need to waive Jacob, to take that risk.
Dumb.
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