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Osgood out 6-8 weeks, Wings won’t trade for a backup

Ansar Khan of Mlive.com has reported that Wings veteran goalie Chris Osgood flew out to Philadelphia to have sports hernia surgery today. He had what is described as a ‘significant tear’ to his groin and will be out 6-8 weeks.

The surgery was performed by Dr. William Meyers who also performed the same surgery on fellow teammates Kris Draper and Tomas Holmstrom.

Wings GM Ken Holland said that the team would no pursue a goalie via trade or through waivers and that Osgood would return in plenty of time to prepare himself for the playoffs. In the meantime the Wings have called up Joey MacDonald to backup Jimmy Howard whose playing time is surely to increase. Ken Holland believes though that this shouldn’t be a problem since the difficult part of the schedule is over.

“If you look at our schedule over the next 4-5 weeks, we’ve done the hardest part,” Holland said. “We have lots of games spread out, easy travel. We can play Jimmy a lot. And we’ll play Joey MacDonald in the games Ozzie was supposed to play.”

According to Khan, the Wings also have plenty of wiggle room underneath the cap now due to all the injuries the team has sustained this season. Again though Ken Holland doesn’t anticipate using any of that space since it would only cause problems once everyone is healthy.

“When everyone is healthy we’re about $500,000 to $700,000 under the cap,” Holland said. “We’re in no position to start picking up contract and then have to get rid of guys when everyone gets back.”

Furthermore Khan writes that Datsyuk and Cleary should return just before the All Star break (January 27th-31st) while Modano, Osgood and Stuart should be back with the team in early March.

Source: Mlive.com

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