Kings pick Ellis off of waivers
Yesterday, the Red Wings sent forward Matt Ellis to Grand Rapids so that he could get some more playing time. Unfortunately, he had to be placed on waivers before making it to GR and the LA Kings picked him off of waivers earlier today.
Ellis was a fan favorite in GR and a former team captain of the Grand Rapids Griffins so there are some Wings fans who are not too pleased with Holland’s decision to place Ellis on waivers. One fan is Matt @ On the Wings:
Ellis was a real asset to this organization, much more so than Hartigan, and I’m sorry to see him go. The guy built a reputation as one of the hardest-working players in the system and the reward he gets is being cast off. If the Wings did this as a favor to help him get to a team that could use him more, that’s nice, I suppose. You still hate to see the guy have to uproot his young family and move 3/4 the way across the country.
Ansar Khan @ MLive.com got a quote from veteran Kris Draper about Ellis:
“You can’t say enough about him, great personality, great work ethic,” Wings center Kris Draper said of Ellis. “It was tough on him not being able to play as much as he would have liked, but anything that the coaches asked of him, he did. He came to the rink every day with a smile. Those are the kind of guys you love having around. You hope he gets an opportunity and makes the most of it.”
IwoCPO @ Abel to Yzerman is a bit suspicious with how this all played out:
Was Matt Ellis a difference maker? Nope. Was he going to be? Probably not. But this whole thing’s curious, the timing of it, the selection of Hartigan–not the best guy in the room from what I’ve read–over Ellis, the McCarty thing and the deadline all wrapped up in a nice little bundle of confusion.
I’m going to say we hold off on judgment until the 27th. I’d like to see how this all pans out.
Head coach Mike Babcock said that it was fair to Ellis to place him on waivers for a chance to get more playing time since he wasn’t getting it from Babcock. Ellis played just four games in the last 19.
“(Ellis) was in a situation where I wasn’t using him,” Babcock said. “He wasn’t fitting in on a regular basis. He’ll play in the NHL for a long time because he’s so determined. (But) he was getting less and less opportunity here.”
What do I think about all this? I am surprised that Holland didn’t use the two week conditioning stint that he did with Derek Meech earlier this season. Why put Ellis on waivers when the odds are that a character guy like that will get picked up? I just don’t know. Perhaps Holland felt that we have other players similar to Ellis’ style of play and that he wouldn’t be as missed as a player like Aaron Downey (hypothetically speaking). Another possibility is that Holland knew he might have to make room for some player on the roster by the trade deadline and didn’t quite see Ellis fitting his plans for next season and decided to risk it on the waivers. Who knows…
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February 21st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
[…] Mark Hartigan was also called up now that Matt Ellis was picked off of waivers by […]
February 21st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
[…] It In Motown and the other BTJ posts that I have published this week: Detroit Red Wings roundup Kings pick Ellis off of waivers Harmless speculation about a rumor Wings to offer McCarty a contract? Lidstrom hurts knee in game […]