Elliotte Friedman: The Detroit Red Wings have placed forward Jakub Vrana on waivers.
Chris Johnston: Vrana has recently come out of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.
He carries a $5.25 million salary cap hit for one more season.
Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: The Red Wings needed to put a player on waivers to be able to activate Robby Fabbri. Waiving Vrana was a surprise.
He spent two months in the players assistance program and was reinstated on December 16th. He was on a conditioning stint in the AHL.
Nolan Bianchi: “Pure speculation, but given the circumstances Vrana is coming from, I just can’t imagine the Red Wings are intentionally giving him up (for free) to any random org who wants him. That doesn’t make sense for the team or the player.”
- Nolan Bianchi: “Which makes me believe there’s some sort of honor code thing here between Yzerman and the other GMs, where unique circumstances have been communicated and Vrana won’t get claimed. But we’ll never know what Yzerman is thinking until he says it. Just bizarre all around”
Justin Bourne: “DET doesn’t wanna see if Vrana can clean himself up and find his form as team mid-turnaround looking for guys who can move the needle? I realize there’s risk here, it’s not a no-brainer, just seems like he’s the type of guy THEY would want. (Maybe the player wants a fresh start?)”
Ryan Merkley is another Hockey Prospecting favorite. Over half the dmen that look like this turn into stars and almost all of them play 500+ games in the NHL. Wouldn’t write off a 22 yo that looks like this quite yet. https://t.co/wDRPj2jIFa pic.twitter.com/8WdeONkjhS
— Byron Bader (@ByronMBader) January 3, 2023
Vrana has been consistently quite good for his whole career, but he’s had issues staying healthy (he’s only played >70 games in a season twice). Hopefully we’ll see him back in the NHL soon. Always was a fun player to watch. pic.twitter.com/YFRKHYWkC0
— EvolvingWild (@EvolvingWild) January 3, 2023