5 seemingly unreasonable offseason moves that would make complete sense for the Red Wings

Inserting Robby Fabbri into a trade package

If there is one player the Red Wings can afford to lose, it’s Robby Fabbri, and he’s a player Steve Yzerman can insert into just about any trade package. One downside to moving someone like Fabbri means the Red Wings would be trading not just someone who once won a Stanley Cup, but a player who was on a Cup-winning team that faced tons of adversity. 

That said, Fabbri brings value to the Red Wings much in the same way Perron does, but the latter would be a much better fit to stick around. Supposing they end up keeping Perron, trading Fabbri, for one, would open up that spot in the lineup for a younger player or current prospect to take over full-time, where they could start on the lower lines and work their way into accruing more ice time. 

Fabbri, at this point in his career, looks like he’s heading for a permanent role on the fourth line, and while it’s important to have strong forwards who can play sound defense at 5-on-5 and even strength, there are better options out there. Fabbri will earn $4.25 million this season in the final year of his deal with the Red Wings, so moving him will create cap space to allow Detroit to use in either free agency or re-signing their own pending free agents to contract extensions. 

Overall, Fabbri would provide much more value to the Red Wings if they traded him in the final year of his deal, ideally to a potential contender in the Western Conference who could use a lower-liner.