Detroit Red Wings: Hypothetical trade offer number two for Bo Horvat.
Let’s take a look at the second trade offer I’ve created.
This offer is sure to garner an overreaction. Again, it’s hard to acquire a 30-plus goal scorer for nothing. The Vancouver Canucks will be fielding a plethora of offers for their captain if a contract extension isn’t agreed upon over the All-Star break. To get a deal done, Vancouver needs to be creative due to the salary cap hell former general manager Jim Benning put them in.
J.T. Miller’s extension, which averages $8 million per season, kicks in next year, plus Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson earn over $7 million each. Brock Boeser and Tyler Myers come in at $6.65 and $6 million, respectively. Oh, and Ilya Mikheyev and Conor Garland are nearing $5 million per season. Yikes. This is the definition of cap hell if I’ve ever seen it.
Bo Horvat is in the final year of a deal that averaged $5.5 million, and that money can be replaced with a pair of ready-to-play players. Filip Hronek is having another solid season with the Red Wings and could be a really enticing piece for the Canucks. Hronek is due $4.4 million this year and next. The 25-year-old defender has recorded seven goals and 33 points for the Red Wings this season, so it’s not a given Yzerman will even consider trading him, but this is one of those, trade him while his value is at its highest.
Again, top centers are hard to find and acquire. The Red Wings have found that out the hard way over the last few years, or since Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg left the club. Detroit has a great building block with Larkin, and adding Horvat slides Copp down to play as the third-line center. Suddenly Detroit would have scoring depth down the middle they’ve been lacking for years.
Joe Veleno remains a very intriguing center. Although he hasn’t been the consistent scorer (yet), Ken Holland thought he’d be when Detroit drafted Veleno in the first round of the 2018 NHL Entry Level Draft; he’s flashed that high-end skill from time to time.
Veleno is a tremendous skater, and as a regular this season, he’s scored six goals and 14 points over 45 games. At just 23 years old, the pending restricted free agent that currently earns less than $900,000 per season could be a nice depth piece with middle-line potential for the Canucks for years to come.