Red Wings, Ouellet Agree To Terms On Two-Year Deal
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today agreed to terms with defenseman Xavier Ouellet on a two-year contract.
Ouellet, 23, skated in 66 games with the Red Wings in his first full NHL season and tallied 12 points (3-9-12), a plus-two rating, 51 penalty minutes, 73 hits and 87 blocked shots while averaging 17:58 time on ice. He has logged 96 NHL games since making his NHL debut during the 2013-14 campaign, totaling 16 points (5-11-16), a plus-four rating and 57 penalty minutes.
The 6-foot-1, 208-pound defenseman also appeared in 183 games with the American Hockey League's Grand Rapids Griffins from 2013-16, notching 62 points (9-53-62), a plus-21 rating and 112 penalty minutes and adding 10 points (3-7-10), a plus-two rating and 18 penalty minutes in 33 AHL postseason games. Ouellet was an AHL All-Star with the Griffins in 2015 and 2016 before graduating to full-time NHL duty.
Originally drafted by the Red Wings in the second round (48th overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Ouellet spent four seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the Montreal Juniors and Blainville-Boisbriand Aramada prior to his professional career. The two-time QMJHL First-Team All-Star appeared in 223 games with the two teams from 2009-13, registering 160 points (41-119-160), a plus-61 rating and 177 penalty minutes. He added 37 points (10-27-37), a plus-10 rating and 54 penalty minutes in 43 QMJHL playoff games.
A native of Bayonne, France, Ouellet skates for Canada internationally and contributed a goal and two assists in six games during the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championships and won a gold medal at the 2011 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament.