Red Wings Should Trade Jonathan Bernier
By John Manzo
The veteran goalie has played himself into trade conversations with a strong two-month stretch.
When you’re in rebuild mode, you need assets to, well, “rebuild.”
The Detroit Red Wings (14-39-4) have been so painfully bad this season, that trade-worthy players are few and far between.
Goalie Jonathan Bernier is the outlier. He’s floating in this little space of not quite “core foundation,” but not quite 2-21 bad like Jimmy Howard. In all seriousness, Bernier has been pretty good.
According to Detroit Free Press writer Helene St. James, Bernier is 7-5 since mid-December with a .940 save percentage and 1.97 goals-against average. He also was the winning goalie – standing on his head (figuratively) – during the surprisingly good last week the team had with wins against the Buffalo Sabres and NHL-leading Boston Bruins.
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Assets stabilizing the core foundation include the likes of Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi, Filip Hronek and Filip Zadina. These guys are in the untouchable category because of their age, salary or both – mixed with the positive results we’ve seen to date.
On the flip side, many Red Wings have had a notoriously bad season, such as Justin Abdelkader, Frans Nielsen, Valtteri Filppula, Howard and many others.
When you’re in rebuild mode, you need assets to, well, “rebuild.”
Detroit has the chance to capitalize on a player of value, and they should strike while the iron, or in this case, the Bernier, is hot.
Again, there’s not many players teams will want from the home locker room inside Little Caesars Arena, but fortunately, a strong two months from Bernier opens the doors for suitors.
Options include the Vegas Golden Knights or a longer-term play in the San Jose Sharks, who will benefit most from having Bernier under contact in 2020-21 at a reasonable cap hit of $3 million.
When you’re in rebuild mode, you need assets to, well, “rebuild.”
Bernier has the stats worthy of trade value, there are relevant suitors to be had and ANY return is a win in this scenario, as long as it’s a draft pick or promising young asset.
Bernier is not looked at as a core foundational solution, there are plenty of capable fillers anticipated to hit the free agent market this off season such as Corey Crawford, Jaroslav Halak, Brian Elliott and more, and as you know…
…”when you’re in rebuild mode, you need assets to, well, “rebuild.”