DETROIT (AP) - The Detroit Red Wings moved to shed salary Monday, placing defenceman Derian Hatcher and forwards Darren McCarty and Ray Whitney on waivers.
If the trio go unclaimed, the Red Wings have the option of buying out their contracts and making them unrestricted free agents.
''They've been a big, big part of our franchise,'' Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill said. ''This is just a part of doing business right now with the new CBA.''
The NHL's new collective bargaining agreement features a $39-million salary cap, and teams were granted a six-day window starting last Saturday to shed cumbersome contracts.
For the upcoming season, including the 24 per cent rollback, Hatcher's contract calls for a salary of $4.94 million, McCarty $1.71 million and Whitney $2.66 million.
The 33-year-old Hatcher, a former Dallas Stars captain, signed with Detroit as a free agent before the 2003-04 season. Considered at the time to be one of the best all-around defencemen in the league, the big bruising Hatcher had little impact with his hometown team, tearing a knee ligament in the third game and missing the majority of that season.
Whitney, 33, also signed as a free agent with the Wings during 2003. He had 24 goals and 52 assists the season before with Columbus, and the Red Wings hoped he could fill the void created when Sergei Fedorov signed with Anaheim. With Detroit in 2003-04, Whitney managed 14 goals and 29 assists.
McCarty, who has spent his entire 11-year career with Detroit, is a fan favourite whose playing style embodies the blue-collar spirit of the city. McCarty, 33, won three Stanley Cups with the Wings and scored the winning goal against Philadelphia in 1997.
''He's a hard-working, roll-up-your-sleeves kind of guy,'' Nill said. ''He's really what the city's all about. He came every night to play hard. He was a big part of our success.''
McCarty is known for hammering Colorado's Claude Lemieux during a 1997 brawl that came only months after Lemieux incensed Hockeytown with a blindside check on Kris Draper that sent the Red Wings forward into the boards face-first. Draper sustained a fractured jaw, a broken nose and severe facial lacerations and had to undergo surgery.
''For me, it's always about team. To be a part of three Stanley Cups with the great teams we had is something that you can't take away. I'll always look at my rings,'' McCarty said during an interview on WDFN-AM in Detroit.