The Red Wings Could Take Advantage of Vegas' Cap Conundrum

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The Detroit Red Wings off-season is official now that the season is finished. So, what is their plan?

The Detroit Red Wings are entering the off-season with roughly about $35,000,000 in cap space. That top percent tile that the Red Wings are currently perched on is only home to a few teams in the NHL. So, that being said, could the Red Wings take advantage of cap and try and acquire a player from one of the teams that don’t have the cap space?

Well, to answer that, we first need to think about who would be willing to deal a player of value because you know that Yzerman isn’t going to make a trade just to acquire a depth piece. We have plenty of those in the pipeline. What we don’t have is star power and that’s where Yzerman will look.

When thinking about the teams in the NHL who are over the cap, there were only two: the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Vegas Golden Knights. Both of which have a plethora of good players at their disposal. However, you know that Tampa Bay isn’t going to part ways with Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and more. They are still very much in their stanley cup window. But, the Golden Knights on the other hand;

The Golden Knights are currently over the cap by roughly about $2,500,000. That being said, it’s going to be hard to move some of their smaller name players when their roster is compiled of big contracts. So I don’t think there is much question in the matter- they are going to have to deal a moderate-large name.

So, could the Red Wings take advantage of that? And if so, who should they try and acquire from them?

Shea Theodore of the Vegas Golden Knights. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

Who Should the Red Wings Target?

The Detroit Red Wings roster is young. I mean, even looking into the season, their best player is second-year defenseman, Moritz Seider. Now, that of course is up for debate because Dylan Larkin would be a more than acceptable answer there. But the point I’m making here is that the Red Wings young players own a majority of the minutes on their roster. Therefore, mistakes are going to be made.

In order to change that, you have to find balance between getting your young guys minutes on the ice, and when to shorten their minutes in order to avoid mistakes.

That’s why the Golden Knights would be a perfect trade partner with the Red Wings. They need to clear cap space due to their large superstar contracts, and they also primarily have veteran players on the league.

So, who should the Red Wings target?

Shea Theodore, D

The good thing about Shea Theodore is the fact that he isn’t getting heavily paid by the Golden Knights. However, he would relieve them of their debt and I feel that’s good enough for them.

Now, you may be asking why this article is even written. And I’m glad you asked- because this is more realistic than you guys think it is.

They have to clear over $2,500,000. In order to do that, they would have to dispose of three players just to meet even. So, although getting under the cap is the goal they are trying to reach, I’m sure that they aren’t going to be satisfied with being even. It doesn’t give them any financial flexibility. That’s why the trading of Shea Theodore makes sense.

Shea Theodore is coming off a down year. Having spent some time watching their games this season. I know that Theodore still has a lot to offer despite not really showing that this season.

Throughout the season, there were a lot of highs and lows. Due to injuries, you could tell that he wasn’t very healthy all season long. Which, to be completely honest, is no excuse as just about everyone else on the Knights went down with injuries as well. All-in-all, it was just a bad season for them. So, what are they going to do?

Well, I expect they’ll make a trade in order to acquire some prospects and picks. They have many, many players that could be good in a year or two, but they also are still competing which means they will look to add at least one player who can help them out next season. That’s why Jonatan Breggren’s name is in the trade.

Obviously I don’t want to trade Berggren. He is a very good prospect for the Red Wings due to his speed and offensive skill set. But, when trying to find a trade I realized that we have to part with prospects because that’s what the Golden Knights are looking for. And quite frankly, we don’t need as many prospects as we have. We don’t have space for all of them. So why not move one or two and get yourselves a proven star defenseman who can play both on the right and left side?

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I know the package that we gave up in this mock is probably a little bit more than what some of you may like. However, this is what It’d take to get Theodore, I expect.

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