Red Wings: Analyzing 3 Possible Trade Partners in the West Division

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The West is a division full of teams looking to sell at the deadline, but a few teams are poised for a deep run in the playoffs. The Red Wings have assets to sell.

We’ve already looked to the East and Central for potential trade partners – but what about the West?

If the Red Wings end up making a deal with a team out west, it looks like Vegas, Colorado, and Minnesota will be the most likely suitors.

Vegas Golden Knights

Cap Space: $165,516

Red Wings In Play: Jon Merrill, Adam Erne

If Vegas wants to make a deal before the deadline to bolster the roster, it’s going to take some maneuvering of the cap space. With such little cap left to work with, any sort of deal will require retaining salary, moving a big contract, or other sorts of cap magic (like the kind we saw the Lightning perform in the three team deal Saturday).

Vegas is now in a battle for the West with one of the best teams in the league, the Colorado Avalanche. If Vegas wants to lock up that spot on top, it’ll likely take some roster shakeups to do it. However, Vegas is a well built team. There are not a lot of major gaps in the lineup – any sort of trades will likely be an attempt to strengthen the team’s depth. That’s perfect for a team like Detroit, which has a pretty good selection of depth players marked as trade assets. Vegas is a team that needs depth scoring and depth defenseman – and Detroit has both.

Best Case:

Adam Erne: ’22 3rd rounder

Jon Merrill: ’22 3rd rounder

Vegas has two 3rd round picks in 2022, and they are a team that has a history of using their draft picks as trade capital. Based on the return that Steve Yzerman got for Patrick Nemeth (’22 4th round pick), a 3rd for Merrill is a very reasonable ask. Merrill is statistically a superior player to Nemeth, and is relatively cheap with a $925,000 contract. Adam Erne has had a breakout season, tied for the team lead in goals, with ten. A third is more than fair.

Realistic:

Adam Erne: ’22 4th rounder

Jon Merrill: ’21 4th rounder

Colorado Avalanche

Cap Space: $4.63 million

Red Wings in Play: Jon Merrill, Marc Staal, Luke Glendening

The Avalanche are one of the best teams in the NHL this year, and they hold first place in the West division. They have a lot more cap room than the Knights and can afford to make a bit more noise at the deadline. But there aren’t many gaps in this roster. The only glaring issue, the backup goaltending situation, was solved a few days ago, as the Avalanche acquired Devan Dubnyk from the Sharks. With the best offense in the league, the Avs really just need players with specific talents (like Glendening’s faceoff skills) and veteran experience on the blue line.

Staal and Merrill are both decent options to reinforce the defensive line of the Avalanche. Merrill has quietly had a good year in Detroit, and with the help of Troy Stecher, Staal is also having a solid year. Glendening also provides a veteran presence, with the addition of his ridiculous face off percentage.

Best Case:

Jon Merrill: ’21 3rd rounder

Marc Staal: ’21 5th rounder

Luke Glendening: ’21 3rd rounder

Staals name has come up in a surprising amount of trade lists this year, but Wings fans shouldn’t get their hopes up for anything better than a 5th. Nemeth went for a 4th, and he’s a better player than Staal – cheaper, too. Merrill and Glendening are both relatively desirable depth pieces, and a 3rd rounder is not unreasonable for either.

Realistic:

Jon Merrill: ’22 4th rounder

Marc Staal: ’21 6th rounder

Luke Glendening: ’22 3rd rounder

Minnesota Wild

Cap Space: $2.19 million

Red Wing in Play: Luke Glendening

The Wild are in an odd spot at the deadline this year. Still seen as a rebuilding year, they are ahead of schedule – 3rd place in the West Division, just 8 points out of the number one spot. So they have decision to make – continue down the rebuild path and focus on acquiring future assets, or start to sell the future to build on the current success?

Based on the lack of rumors, it seems as though the Wild will opt to stay conservative. Not shipping off players for assets, but also not buying rentals for a playoff run. However, based on their current divisional standing, the Wild are destined for a playoff spot. Glendening could be the difference maker in a seven game playoff series.

The Wild have the second worst faceoff percentage in the league, and Glendening has the second best. He’s also a solid 4th line grinder, and he brings a solid veteran presence to the bottom six.

Best Case:

’21 3rd rounder

The Wild decide to strengthen the roster for a legit playoff run by acquiring a veteran with some very specialized skills.

Realistic:

’21 4th rounder

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