DETROIT -- The final roster cuts are proving to be more difficult than anticipated for the Detroit Red Wings.
The club must reduce its loaded roster to a maximum of 23 players and be salary-cap compliant by 3 p.m. Wednesday. A trade would help alleviate the logjam.
General manager Ken Holland said Monday he has been working the phones in an effort to make a trade before Thursday's regular season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Joe Louis Arena.
An NHL source confirmed the Red Wings are attempting to deal defenseman Kyle Quincey. The club likes the 23-year-old Quincey's size (6-foot-2, 215 pounds) and the physical element he brings, but believes Derek Meech, a better skater and puck-handler, has a bigger upside.
Meech, who also can play forward in a pinch, has outplayed Quincey in training camp and the preseason. The Red Wings likely are seeking a mid- to late-round draft pick for Quincey, who can't be assigned to Grand Rapids (AHL) without clearing waivers.
The team has settled on Andreas Lilja and Brett Lebda as its third defense pairing.
Meech is the seventh defenseman. Because top prospect Jonathan Ericsson is their only NHL-ready defenseman who is waiver-exempt, he is expected to start the season in the minors.
Chris Chelios (fractured right tibia) will start the season on long-term injured reserve (minimum 10 games or 24 days), so his $750,000 salary won't count against the cap.
Excluding Chelios, the Red Wings have 22 players on one-way contracts who can't be sent down without going through waivers (forwards Pavel Datsyuk, Marian Hossa, Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Jiri Hudler, Valtteri Filppula, Dan Cleary, Mikael Samuelsson, Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby and Tomas Kopecky; defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall, Brad Stuart, Lilja, Lebda, Meech and Quincey; goaltenders Chris Osgood and Ty Conklin).
With those 22, the Red Wings are about $450,000 under the $56.7 million salary cap.
They would have had to move a defenseman by the time Chelios returned. Dealing one in the next couple of days would enable them to keep a 13th forward on the season-opening roster.
Young Darren Helm, who flourished in the playoffs, is the odds-on favorite, but only if coach Mike Babcock plays him. The club won't carry Helm or rookie Ville Leino -- who also has impressed during the preseason -- as a spare.
Helm and Leino are exempt from waivers. Veterans Darren McCarty and Aaron Downey, who provide a different dimension with their toughness and also are in the mix for a forward spot, must clear waivers to be assigned to Grand Rapids.
"I think with every organization, the last three or four decisions are always difficult because you're talking about people who think they've played well enough to play in the NHL," Holland said. "We came to camp hoping to have competition, and we've had it. Some people we send down have stated a case to stay."
Holland also noted the club must have either enough cap room or the ability to immediately send down a player without waiting for the waiver process in case they need to recall a goaltender from Grand Rapids in the event Osgood or Conklin has a short-term injury or illness.
This is why they waived Downey on a couple of occasions last season. He cleared and wasn't sent down, but it gave them the flexibility in case of an injury to a goalie.
Injury update
Holland said he doesn't anticipate Hossa's sore groin keeping him out of Thursday's game.
"I was told Saturday night it's nothing significant," Holland said.
McCarty, however, has some tenderness in his groin and will be re-evaluated today.
Holland said goalie Jimmy Howard is out seven to 10 days with a broken finger and can't be sent down until he's healthy. He takes up one of the 23 roster spots, but only a slight portion of his salary, based on the number of days he spent with the team last season, counts against the cap, not enough to affect any roster decisions.