Stephen Weiss and the Detroit Red Wings can't catch a break. (USATSI)
Stepehn Weiss and the Detroit Red Wings can't catch a break. (USATSI)

Few moves in free agency have backfired as much as the Detroit Red Wings' decision to sign Stephen Weiss to a five-year, $24.9 million contract prior to the 2013-14 season.

And it just seems to keep getting worse for everybody involved.

Having only played in one game for the Red Wings this season, the team decided to send Weiss to Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League on a conditionining assignment this week so he could get some playing time. That assignment didn't even last one game as he had to leave their game on Wednesday night after two periods with a sore groin, according to Red Wings general manager Ken Holland (via the Detroit Free Press).

He was not at practice on Thursday.

This is just the latest setback for Weiss and the Red Wings as the team continues to wait for him to make some sort of an impact. Any impact.

A sports hernia limited him to just 26 games last season, and when he was in the lineup he managed just four points (two goals, two assists). That came after his final year with the Panthers when he appeared in just 17 games, scoring only a single goal, in the lockout shortened 2012-13 season due to wrist surgery.

Weiss' rapid decline is a stunning fall for a player that just two years ago was a consistent and well-rounded 20-goal, 60-point player for Florida, but age (he turned 31 last April) and injuries will have that kind of impact on a player.  

What has to make the Weiss situation even more frustrating for Red Wings fans is that he's not only one of the few players the team has added from outside the organization in recent years, but also because the decision to sign him coincided with Valtteri Filppula leaving the team to sign with Tampa Bay (for only $100,000 more) where he has continued to be a productive top-six forward. 

Weiss' $4.9 million salary cap hit is the fourth largest on the team, behind only forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and starting goalie Jimmy Howard.