NHL Trade Deadline: Red Wings Should Pursue David Legwand

Dec 27, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Nashville Predators center

(11) watches from the bench during the game against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. The Stars defeated the Predators 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The Detroit Red Wings may have paid the biggest price of all the NHL teams who sent players to the  Winter Olympics in Sochi. Captain Henrik Zetterberg aggravated his chronic back injury in Team Sweden’s second game causing him to miss the rest of the Olympics. Now that he has had surgery to repair a loose disk fragment in his back, it looks like Zetterberg will miss the rest of the NHL season as well.

So now with one of their top goal scores on the shelf should the Red wings be looking for a scoring forward at the March 5th deadline?

If they hope to have a chance at advancing then…..yes.

With the Red Wings now in need of a scorer, David Legwand of the Nashville Predators might be just what they are looking for.

Legwand (33) is on the downside of his career but could benefit from a change of scenery and a playoff run.  Although he is five years removed from his last  20 goal season, David Legwand can still put the biscuit in the basket especially in the playoffs. He had 6 points in ten playoff games last season and in the 2012-13 playoffs picked-up 9 points over twelve games including 6 goals.

Although the Michigan native’s left-handed shot would certainly help the Red Wings, the price might be two high for a team rebuilding on the fly. Pro Hockey Talk reports that the Predators will be looking for a first or second round pick for the services of their center. The price may be too steep considering the Wings ability to develop talent out of the draft.

But next years draft pick can’t help the Red Wings now. The Red Wings don’t have three years to develop talent to replace Zetterberg not if they want to make the play-offs this season.  The young guns from Grand Rapids are already with the big club so a suitable replacement for the Wings Swedish captain will have to be found on the trade market.

Draft pick(s) aside there is another barrier to acquiring Nashville’s center. Any trade would require approval from David Legwand himself because he has a full no-movement clause in his contract. That said, one could assume a move to his hometown Detroit Red Wings wouldn’t be something to which his is opposed.