On February 3rd the Red Wings were forced to make a decision regarding their glut of young-ish defensemen. Brendan Smith was set to return from Injured Reserve and one of Alexey Marchenko, Nick Jensen, Xavier Ouellet or Ryan Sproul would need to be moved. Given the strong play of Ouellet and Jensen, coupled with the fact that Marchenko hadn’t seen the ice in nearly two weeks, it was pretty clear that he or Sproul would be stuck as the odd man out. As you probably have heard, the Wings waived Marchenko who was then scooped up by the Leafs.