The Detroit Red Wings, along with the rest of the league, watched the first domino fall as the trade deadline gets closer. The New Jersey Devils dealt Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac to the New York Islanders for A.J. Greer and Mason Jobst, a 2022 fourth round pick and this year’s first round pick. Reviews of the deal are mixed and while it appears that it favored the Islanders in the here and now, history is always the greater judge once prospects and draft picks have time to either flourish or fail. From a neutral perspective, I think both teams got what they need.
The pressing question though: where does this leave the Red Wings?
Detroit doesn’t have a name like Palmieri’s to deal away with the closest one being Anthony Mantha, whose stock isn’t as high as it once was. Even though they have a slew of unrestricted free agents they could flip, he won’t garner near the return Palmieri did.
What the hockey world does know is that the Red Wings have Evgeny Svechnikov on the block. Darren Helm has also indicated he’s open to being moved to have a crack at playoff hockey. From there, it’s a steady stream of names that include anyone that isn’t Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider, or Lucas Raymond. Yzerman quietly has the Wings open for business, and he’s looking for draft picks to stock the already loaded Red Wings prospect pool with more assets.
Looking at his history, Yzerman is creative and will do what he needs to in order to enrich the organization. He won’t hit on everything, as we’ve seen at times even in Detroit. But for every Brendan Perlini trade, there’s the Robby Fabbri trade. Though the Eric Comrie trade didn’t yield anything, his Marc Staal deal could potentially net more than the second round pick that came with him.
Like everything else in life, it’s best to take the good with the bad. And going back to his playing days, there’s an awful lot more of good than bad when it comes to Yzerman.
The next days will provide some entertainment while continuing to add to the foundation for a dominant future.