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Red Wings: Grading Detroit’s Trade Deadline Moves

By John Manzo

DALLAS, TX - FEBRUARY 29: Andreas Athanasiou #72 of the Detroit Red Wings celebrates with Mike Green #25 of the Detroit Red Wings and Jonathan Ericsson #52 of the Detroit Red Wings after scoring against the Dallas Stars in the second period at American Airlines Center on February 29, 2016 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX - FEBRUARY 29: Andreas Athanasiou #72 of the Detroit Red Wings celebrates with Mike Green #25 of the Detroit Red Wings and Jonathan Ericsson #52 of the Detroit Red Wings after scoring against the Dallas Stars in the second period at American Airlines Center on February 29, 2016 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
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The Detroit Red Wings made two trades during Monday’s NHL trade deadline. Let’s look at how they fared.

Now that the dust has settled on an active NHL trade deadline across the league, let’s look a little deeper at the two Detroit Red Wings trades Monday.

As many of you know by now, general manager Steve Yzerman led the charge in trading forwards Andreas Athanasiou and Ryan Kuffner, along with defenseman Mike Green, to the Oilers in exchange for two second round picks, a likely fourth round pick and forward Sam Gagner.

So how did the Red Wings fare?

Red Wings Trade: Andreas Athanasiou, Ryan Kuffner
Red Wings Receive: Sam Gagner, 2020 and 2021 2nd round picks

You must think this is the best Yzerman was offered given he mentioned “several” teams were interested in the speedster, so I don’t know how anyone can grade this lower than a B-.

Athanasiou is a restricted free agent at seasons end, and with him already throwing a hissy fit a couple years back over his contract, you have to think he is going to want a pay raise.

Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha have better attitudes than Athanasiou, along with better or comparable performances. Add in Filip Zadina, Evgeny Svechnikov, Joe Veleno and others coming up the pipeline, and Athanasiou is your odd man out.

Yzerman gets a knock for not acquiring a 1st round pick, but he sold Athanasiou at his highest, receiving picks versus nothing at all if the asking price is too rich come the summer.

Grade: B+

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Red Wings Trade: Mike Green
Red Wings Receive: LITR Kyle Broadziak, *2020 4th round pick (upgrades to 2021 3rd round pick if Edmonton advances to the Western Conference Final (WCF), and Green plays in 50 percent of the games, per CapFriendly.com)

I mean, there’s not much to say here outside of it’s better than not receiving anything. There shouldn’t be a logical hockey fan out there that would expect much more of a return for Green, a 34-year-old defenseman who’s having a down year and is injury prone.

Broadziak is irrelevant, but adding his contract likely sweetened the pot slightly to get Detroit the conditional portion of the deal, making it possible  this turns into a 2021 third-round pick if the Oilers advance to the WCF and Green plays 50 percent of the games.

Grade: A-

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