Detroit Red Wings: Darren Helm should be on the Trade Block

It is time to cut ties with another veteran forward, Darren Helm is a forward Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland rushed to re-sign as he dipped his toe into the free agency waters.

When Darren Helm broke into the league, he played with a very similar style to Kris Draper, and while wearing number 43, ten more than the 33 Draper made famous in Detroit. The young Detroit Red Wings center was found streaking down the middle of the ice using his premier speed creating the odd scoring chance but was much better known for making a defensive play and his penalty killing ability.

The hope was this youngster would indeed be Draper 2.0.  The fact is, he’s more gifted offensively than Draper ever was but hadn’t developed into half of the defensive player.  Draper might not have scored at the same clip but he could play a shutdown role against anyone’s top player better than anyone across the league.

Helm is a decent depth player, but the Red Wings’ roster is littered with “depth” type players.  The NHL has changed yet the Wings general manager often fails to keep up with the times.  The bottom of a teams’ roster these days need to be made up of young, cheap forwards who are chomping at the bit to move up the depth chart.  In other cases, a fourth line can be made up of veteran players making a reasonable team friendly salary somewhere around two million or below.

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Darren Helm, of course, makes 3.85 million dollars per season with two more seasons remaining on the deal.  This should come as no surprise, Helm was shopping around and no one will nor should blame him but instead of allowing a veteran to walk is against Ken Holland‘s way of life and he couldn’t help himself and leaped in with a five-year offer worth 19.25 million.

In my opinion, it’s about 10 million total or 2 million per season too much.  I actually like Darren Helm as a player, but the money and term just don’t add up for a player of his caliber, but similar to many other occasions Ken Holland seems to disagree.  Helm also enjoys a “Ken Holland special” no-trade clause attached to his deal.

The Red Wings should be actively trying to move Helm this summer; there are a handful of teams that will be looking to add a veteran fourth line winger that can play down the middle.  A team that will deem themselves as a contender and looking for a reliable pro that in a pinch can move up and down the lineup would be the ideal suitor for Helm’s services.

The Wings might have to eat a million or so over the next two years to sweeten the pot, but moving Helm would allow a younger player into the lineup along with freeing up some more valuable cap space over the next two years.  With Evgeny Svechnikov, Joesph Veleno, Ryan Kuffner, Taro Hirose and Michael Rasmussen all looking to either crack the lineup or remain a regular next season, the Wings need to start to thin the heard and move on from these thirty-plus year old forwards.

Over the course of 12 NHL seasons, or should I say parts of 10 seasons’ he’s been often injured, and during his first two years, he only appeared in a total of 23 games.  He’s achieved 100 career goals and 227 career points in 629 games played.

Last season Helm was a part of 61 games and recorded 7 goals totaling 17 points and was a minus -11 with a CF% merely 47.5% or below average.