Why the Detroit Red Wings should consider moving Jimmy Howard

The goaltending has been a bright spot in the early going this season for the Detroit Red Wings so why should they consider trading Jimmy Howard?

The Detroit Red Wings started the season behind the eight ball.  It seemed the team launched the new campaign very sluggish after a hard-fought training camp.  It was a training camp that saw a lot of young blood thriving to leave some older more established players to scratch their head.

Head coach Jeff Blashill said during camp the best players will play.  It doesn’t matter if you have ten years or ten days in the league the best players will play. Initially, I thought, yeah, yeah ok whatever Jeff he is just talking saying what we want to hear but when push comes to shove it will be a roster filled with aging veterans.

I was wrong; the Detroit Red Wings were forced to start the season with the “regular” defense core crippled with injuries.  With Mike Green, Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson all on the shelf with various injuries Jeff Blashill was forced to play Dennis Cholowski, Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak.  The trio fared quite well while forced into NHL duty.

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Dennis Cholowski stuck, and he is here for the long haul.  Michael Rasmussen could have been sent back to Junior hockey, but the Detroit Red Wings have decided to keep him for the duration of the season.  I expect him along with Filip Zadina to be loaned to their respected countries for the World Juniors tournament later this month.

After an ugly 0-7-2 start to the season, the Detroit Red Wings have found some tremendous success of late.  The team now owns a regular season record of 11-11-3.  So why should the team even entertain the thought of trading Howie while he has been the best player on the ice most nights backstopping this team to its recent success?

Howard is in the final year of his contract, and it is the only year that does not have a famous Kenny Holland no-trade clause attached.  That allows Holland to field all offers available without any roadblocks although Howard remained healthy much of last season the previous two he was hampered with lower-body injuries.  Howard is set to turn 35 years old during the season, which makes him anything but a youngster.

At the moment more than a handful of teams are interested in adding a goaltender for either stability to have a pair of solid netminders, or finally just a team that is looking for an upgrade.  Howard was never able to be an “elite” goaltender, but for the most part, he has been able to limit his peaks and valleys in his game throughout his career.

Jimmy Howard can serve as a great option to a good team looking for a netminder to be a steady presence in goal down the stretch.  If Ken Holland can get a first round pick for Howard, he needs to pull the trigger on the deal immediately.

After a great draft, this past summer and a host of draft picks (11) for the 2019 draft the Detroit Red Wings have an opportunity to continue to build through the draft.  Acquiring more picks for the likes of Jimmy Howard, Gustav Nyquist, and Thomas Vanek if the latter two decided to waive their no-trade clause could push the Wings over 15 picks in the upcoming draft.

That being said, the Detroit Red Wings do not currently have a goaltending prospect ready to make an impact at the NHL level next season but who is to say they wouldn’t be able to re-sign Howard on July 1st?  There is a real good chance the Wings could deal Howie for picks and resign him this summer.

Surely the soon to be 35 year old will be looking for a three-year deal this summer, but I would be reluctant to give an aging goaltender that many years unless the price was right.  If he would sign a three-year contract, say for 3 million per season I could be pursued to something like that. I would much rather give him more money on a one-year deal, but Howard likely has no interest in that.  Hopefully, the two parties involved can come to terms on a two-year contract worth somewhere between 4-5 million per.

The scenario would be perfect for the rebuilding Wings.  Move Howard as a rental, and ride Bernier the remainder of the season.  Acquire draft picks in a deal and re-sign Howard in the offseason buying time until a goaltending prospect emerges.