4 players the Detroit Red Wings should target ahead of the trade deadline
The Detroit Red Wings are coming off a tough home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Red Wings carried the play for nearly the entire game, but goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stole the show with a 45-save shutout. Vasilevskiy looked like a Hall Of Fame netminder Saturday night, and it was a great test for Detroit. This young Red Wings team saw what playoff hockey looks like.
The Detroit Red Wings battled all night long but couldn’t find a way to solve the Stanley Cup-winning goaltender. Next up for Detroit is a back-to-back in Ottawa Monday and Tuesday. One of these is a make-up game from earlier this year when a game needed to be postponed due to a winter storm. After splitting with the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning at home last week, it’s imperative that the Red Wings sweep these next two games in Ottawa.
The Red Wings are currently fourth in the wild card hunt, five points behind the New York Islanders, who control the first wild card position, and two points behind the Buffalo Sabres for the second wild card position. The Pittsburgh Penguins are currently one point ahead of Detroit but play Sunday night against the Lightning, so things are really tight at the moment, and there is not much room for error leading up to the NHL trade deadline.
Steve Yzerman has a difficult decision to make ahead of the deadline. Do the Detroit Red Wings stand pat, buy, or sell?
Ahead of the deadline, Detroit plays two games in Ottawa, as I previously mentioned, and a home game on Thursday against the Seattle Kraken. This upcoming three-game stretch should dictate what Yzerman will elect to do ahead of Friday’s 3 pm Est. deadline. If the Red Wings happen to lose the next three, making it four in a row, don’t be surprised if Yzerman sells. If Detroit wins two of three, perhaps Detroit buys cautiously or stands pat.
If the Detroit Red Wings opt to buy, here are four names to watch before the trade deadline.
The Detroit Red Wings should look to add defenseman Luke Schenn.
Luke Schenn, the former prized draft selection of the Toronto Maple Leafs, never did live up to his draft hype with the organization, but he’s grown into a stalwart, gritty, third-pairing defender. The Leafs selected Schenn with the fifth overall pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Level Draft. Throughout his career, Schenn has recorded 41 goals and 190 points over 918 games.
The Detroit Red Wings have a glaring need for their third pairing. Detroit has been rotating Jordan Oesterle, Gustav Lindstrom, and Robert Hagg all season long, but all three have had their issues. Schenn, a right-handed shot, is a rugged stay-at-home defender that would pair nicely with Ben Chiarot or Oli Maatta. Chiarot plays with a bit of a mean streak, and the two would be an excellent physical, reliable third pair for head coach Derek Lalonde.
Also, pairing the two will allow Lalonde to go back to pairing Maatta with Filip Hronek. The two performed exceptionally well together earlier this season. Maatta is a defensive-minded defenseman that rarely puts himself in a compromised position. His style of play allows the offensive-minded Hronek to play a more free-wheeling type of game. Hronek’s offense exploded earlier this season while paired with Maatta.
Schenn has recorded three goals and 21 points this season with the Vancouver Canucks, and is in the final year of his two-year deal that averages just $850,000. Schenn has skated to a plus-9 rating this season averaging just over 17 minutes of ice time per game on a terrible rebuilding team. Schenn won’t wow anyone analytically. He’s produced a Corsi For Percentage of 45.9 and a Relative Corsi For Percentage of -3.4 during even strength situations. Again, paired with a better defender, Schenn will grade out a bit better, but you’ve got to realize what he is; a physical presence on the backend and a slight upgrade to the third pairing.
The 33-year-old defender is garnering some attention on the trade block. Both Boston and Pittsburgh have reportedly checked in with the Canucks on a potential trade in recent days.
Schenn won’t command a hefty return from Detroit and is a cheap rental for the duration of the season.
The Detroit Red Wings should look to add defenseman Nick Jensen or Trevor van Riemsdyk.
Again, similar to Luke Schenn, Washington Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen would be considered a significant upgrade to the Detroit Red Wings’ third pairing.
Jensen, 32, is a former draft selection of the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit picked the right-handed defender 150th overall in the fifth round of the 2009 NHL Entry Level Draft out of St. Cloud State. Jensen played two-plus seasons with Detroit before being shipped to the Washington Capitals in 2019 for Madison Bowey and a 2020 second-rounder that the Red Wings would turn into Cross Hanas.
The Washington Capitals have recently made all of their pending unrestricted free agents available as they look to next season. Washington isn’t expected to begin a wholesale rebuild but more of a reload this summer. Jensen is in the final year of his deal, which averages $2.5 million per season.
Tyler Kotila recently wrote about how Jensen should be a trade target for the Detroit Red Wings, and I agree. The veteran defenseman is posting a career-high in points this season, with 22 in just 61 games. He’s notched two goals and 20 assists while averaging nearly 21 minutes of ice time per game, which is also a career-high. Jensen is also posting a career-high in shot blocks, with 110 to date, with 30 takeaways and 89 hits. The 32-year-old is an above-average skater but is known as a defensive-minded shot-blocking defender that would serve as a clear upgrade on the right side of Detroit’s third pairing.
Jensen has maintained a Corsi For Percentage of 50.3 and a Relative Corsi For Percentage of -1.1 during even strength situations. The veteran defender has been playing on Washington’s top pairing this season, mentoring 23-year-old Martin Fehervary.
Trevor van Riemsdyk could also be a target for the Detroit Red Wings. Like Jensen, van Riemsdyk is a right-handed shot and a pending free agent carrying a cap hit of just $950,000. The 32-year-old defender averages over 18 minutes per night playing on Washington’s second unit.
He’s maintaining a Corsi For Percentage of 51.3, has recorded six goals and 17 points over 61 games, and is a plus-10.
The Detroit Red Wings should look to add forward Sean Monahan.
Sean Monahan is a bit of a reclamation project, and a pending free agent with a cap hit of $6.375 million. Monahan is rehabbing a lower-body injury that’s kept him out of Montreal’s lineup since December. It has yet to be determined if Monahan will be healthy enough to be a target before Friday’s deadline, but if he is, he’s someone Detroit needs to consider.
Monahan, 28, is a three-time 30-goal scorer but has struggled to produce offensively over the past few seasons. Over his last 140 games (the last three seasons, two with Calgary and one in Montreal), Monahan has recorded 24 goals and 68 points while averaging nearly 16 minutes per night and skating to a minus -26 rating. During that span, Monahan has recorded just ten power-play goals and maintained a shooting percentage of 9.1%.
Monahan has recorded six goals and 17 points over 25 games this year in Montreal and is over 55% in the faceoff circle. The veteran 6-foot-2 center would bring some much-needed size to Detroit’s lineup following the injury to Michael Rasmussen. On Saturday night, Rasmussen took a shot off the kneecap and will be out indefinitely, a really tough blow to the Detroit Red Wings. Rasmussen had been playing exceptionally well this season as a middle-six winger. Rasmussen also can play center but has excelled since moving to the wing playing primarily with Andrew Copp at center.
During his first seven seasons with the Calgary Flames, Monahan totaled 194 goals and 411 points over 541 games. During that stretch, Monahan skated as a top-six forward before falling out of favor with the coaching staff during his final two seasons with the Flames. Over those seven seasons, the talented center maintained a shooting percentage of 14.9% and a faceoff percentage of 50.3%.
The Detroit Red Wings could use a center that is effective in the faceoff circle. Following captain Dylan Larkin, Detroit goes with Andrew Copp, Joe Veleno, and Pius Suter down the middle. Of that group, Larkin is the only center winning more than 50% of his draws (53.7%). Both Veleno and Suter have spent time on the wing. Detroit has recently seen some healthy competition among their wingers, with head coach Derek Lalonde rotating a healthy scratch between Jonatan Berggren, Filip Zadina, Jakub Vrana, and Dominik Kubalik.
Next. Steve Yzerman has replenished a once-bare Red Wings prospect pool. dark
Lucas Raymond is expected to return to Detroit’s lineup Monday or Tuesday against Ottawa, which virtually replaces Rasmussen in the lineup. Adding Monahan will bring additional competition to the lineup. Still, he has a scoring pedigree and may need to be in the right situation to recapture that scoring success, so why not in Detroit?