Three Trades the Detroit Red Wings Wish Were April Fools Jokes
On this April Fools Day, take a look at three real trades the Detroit Red Wings have made over the past 15 years since 2004 that everyone wishes were indeed April Fools Day jokes. Take a look at these three deals and why the Detroit Red Wings can only wish they would have just been rumors and not real trades.
After scouring through a trade log, there were a lot of meaningless trades that the Detroit Red Wings have made, where the Red Wings would ship a prospect for a prospect, and then neither of those two players panned out.
Looking into some of the more recent trades it is hard to judge since the draft picks have not all been made, and the players have not fully developed yet. But between 2004-2019, I found three specific trades that caught my eye that are deals to be forgotten.
The Detroit Red Wings have pulled off some good trades, some bad trades, and some trades that cannot be gauged yet because of their more recent backgrounds. Like, as a Red Wings fan you may not like the Gustav Nyquist deal and wish the Red Wings did not make that trade, however, acquiring a second-round pick leaves the potential for the next great Red Wings star to be picked so that deal was not considered for this. The criteria for deciding the three trades to include was all based on, who the Red Wings acquired, what was given up in return, and of course a little bit of personal bias from myself.
The Red Wings have made a lot of trades that actually surprised me, more for the draft picks and who those draft picks turned out to be. For example, being able to draft Dennis Cholowski on a pick that came from the Pavel Datsyuk trade seems like a pretty solid deal that benefitted the Red Wings since Datsyuk is not in the NHL anymore, though he could be eyeing a comeback.
Looking through the transactions over the years, there has been a few separate deals where the draft picks the Red Wings acquired turned out to be some pretty good players or players whom the Red Wings actually ended up moving later in their careers.
This season, the Red Wings have traded Nyquist to the Sharks, and then they acquired Madison Bowey and a second round pick from the Washington Capitals for Nick Jensen. These trades on the surface seem like good deals and look like they will work out to fare well for the Red Wings especially if they were to resign Nyquist this upcoming offseason.
However, these trades have not been indeed completed to gauge because of the picks being thrown around, so they may seem like good trades now and hopefully will seem like great trades if GM Ken Holland can draft good players, or they could seem like terrible trades. The Nyquist trade is a trade to watch, if the player the Red Wings draft with that second round pick is a bust, then trading Nyquist away when he was having a career year.
Back in 2014, the Detroit Red Wings acquired David Legwand from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Calle Jarnkrok, Patrick Eaves, and a 3rd Round Pick (Justin Kirkland). There may not be a lot of huge names thrown around here, but this one stings if you really look more in-depth.
This trade struck me as a move to offload a veteran from Nashville’s perspective, and a move to bring a hometown veteran home to help a team that was struggling with injuries. In the few games he was here, only 21, he only managed 4 goals, 7 assists, for 11 points and was a minus-9 on the year with Detroit. This is not good, simple enough he did not produce as well as he was with Nashville.
The reason this trade was included is mostly because of Legwand’s lack of production and Calle Jarnkrok’s development. Jarnkrok has never had a full season where he has produced great numbers, but even in the 12 games from the 2014 season, he managed 2 goals and 7 assists for 9 total points.
Jankrok saw some good development in the 2017-2018 season where he notched 16 goals and 19 assists for 35 points on a shortened season where he only played in 68 games. Jarnkrok’s 2019 has brought him a recession assuming he does not finish out the remaining games with some fantastic point numbers, but the fact of the matter is, he could have had that break out season with Detroit and found it.
On more of a personal bias note, Jarnkrok had a lot of upside when traded to Nashville, and was supposed to be useful for Nashville which he has, but has just never posted those breakout numbers. Giving up Jarnkrok, Eaves who was a good grinder for the Red Wings, and a third round pick which turned out to be no issue seems like a lot for a player who was a member of the team for only 21 games.
In 2012, the Detroit Red Wings brought on Kyle Quincey from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Sebastien Piche and a 2012 first round pick (Andrei Vasilevskiy). This one obviously was not predicted, but it is definitely tough to see the names involved.
This one was a no brainer that Ken Holland wishes he could have back. Hats off to Jimmy Howard for what he has done while with the Red Wings, but it sure would be nice to have arguably one of the best goaltenders in the league right now in Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Detroit Red Wings traded for Kyle Quincey, a defenseman who’s best year after the Red Wings acquired him was only 18 points in 2014-15. Quincey did not produce great numbers, and when looking at who was taken in his place, it’s hard to have that happen.
Ken Holland has to at least think about this deal; it is understandable that he cannot control what happens when trading these draft picks, but he traded a first round pick for a defenseman that did not score more than 18 points in a season for the Detroit Red Wings.
The draft pick also turned out to be a goalie who is currently 37-9-4 this season for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Vasilevskiy would be around for the next few years on a Red Wings team that is in need of a goaltender of the future with Bernier not panning out, Howard signing a one-year extension, and the young talent not quite ready yet. This trade is definitely one that most people have to wish could be forgotten and erased as quickly as an April Fools joke.
In 2004, the Detroit Red Wings traded for Robert Lang from the Washington Capitals; they gave up Tomas Fleischmann, a 2004 1st round draft pick (Mike Green) and a 2006 4th round pick (Luke Lynes). This is the trade that brought the most pain to read through as a Red Wings fan.
Here comes personal bias raining in yet again, but Robert Lang had two years where he tallied 62 and then 52 points for the Red Wings. Lang also played in six games in 2006 where he notched a goal and 4 assists for 5 points. Lang’s numbers were not bad, but the big thing that just has to make the Red Wings kick themselves is the pick was used on Mike Green.
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It’s 2019, the Red Wings have had Mike Green for the last four seasons, but it sure would have been nice to have a 20-year old Mike Green in 2005-06 when he burst into the league. Think about it, Mike Green with Nicklas Lidstrom as the top defensive pairing? Would have been amazing, I cannot help but think that the front office and GM Ken Holland cannot be at least a little upset with how that turned out. Who knows, maybe Green would have been able to lead a struggling defense after Lidstrom retired.
Besides Green, Tomas Fleischmann was not a bad player at all. Fleischmann has managed a few seasons where he put up 51 points in 69 games played, 61 points in all 82 games another year, and multiple other years with 30 plus points. Fleischmann would have been a solid offensive piece for the Red Wings to keep around and it really seems like this trade definitely came back to bite the Red Wings.
Bad trades are unavoidable; they’re going to happen especially when draft picks are involved. That’s why the criteria for judging these trades as bad cannot be rigid because of how many factors contribute to how you judge the trade.
All-in-all, the Red Wings, have done a great job of making trades that are not harming the organization at least from scrolling through the transaction log, it was not easy to just find bad trade, after bad trade, after a bad trade.
If you look back, not getting Mike Green is something to wish the Red Wings didn’t have to happen but seriously, if our worst trade isn’t sending three draft picks to the Bruins for Phil Kessel like the Toronto Maple Leafs did… in case you didn’t know those three draft picks were Tyler Seguin, Jared Knight, and Dougie Hamilton.
Bad trades are destined to happen in an organization, but having less of them is always better, there was only one glaringly obvious bad trade since 2004 in the Red Wings trade log, and that’s something to note.
Don’t get me wrong, trading a first round pick that later became Tampa Bay’s Vezina candidate goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy for Kyle Quincey is not a good thing by any means, but there is not a whole lot of trades that are terrible, and that’s something to look at. Two of the three trades are pretty bad, but there are teams where you could find more than just two, and as much as Holland has been on the hook lately that’s something to note.