THE RED WINGS WAIVED ALEXEY MARCHENKO

The Red Wings placed Alexey Marchenko on waivers on Friday afternoon to make room for Brendan Smith (knee) to be activated from injured reserve.

Smith will return to the lineup on Saturday, so the Red Wings picked Marchenko out of eight defensemen and placed him on waivers. Marchenko will be a healthy scratch for the fifth straight game tonight and has had a tough 2016-17 season. After a solid showing at the World Cup of Hockey, Marchenko has picked up just six assists in 30 games so far. Marchenko entered the season as a bottom-pairing defenseman and has fallen behind Xavier Ouellet and Nick Jensen on the depth chart, leading to him being waived. 

Marchenko has an ugly 46.94 CorsiFor% and a -1.58 CorsiFor% relative to the Red Wings (per Puckalytics). They were expecting Marchenko to take another step forward, but the opposite happened. A lot of Marchenko’s struggles can likely be attributed to the face that he’s played 279:12 of his 457:36 (61.0%) even-strength minutes alongside Jonathan Ericsson. 

Speaking of Ericsson, if the Red Wings are done and trending towards a rebuild, why would they waive a young and relatively promising young defenseman in Marchenko instead of an aging defenseman with a mammoth contract? Marchenko has showed flashes in the past and is right handed, so they’re running the risk of him getting claimed. Ericsson on the other hand, makes $4.25 million for another four seasons. No one in their right mind would claim him. It’s not like he’s going to get better and contribute to their rebuild. Niklas Kronwall could fall in the same category as Ericsson, which is tough for Red Wings fans to admit, but that’s become the case this season. However, Ken Holland is being his typical, loyal self and refuses to cut ties with the players that he probably should be cutting ties with. 

Teams have until tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. ET to put a claim in for Marchenko.