Detroit Red Wings: Ken Holland Needs To Make Some Trades

The Detroit Red Wings need substantial upgrades. With scant cap room for other free agents, trades are the best route. But that’s not Ken Holland’s forte.

Detroit Red Wings fans are fed up. Sure, they’re spoiled with ridiculously high standards, myself included. Sure, their team has made the playoffs 25 consecutive seasons. But Red Wings fans are sick of making the postseason only to be defeated in the first round.

They’re sick of seeing their team stuck in professional sports purgatory – good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to be a contender and not bad enough to rebuild quickly through the draft.

The Red Wings don’t have tons of cap space. They have plenty of their own free agents to re-sign and they still don’t know Pavel Datsyuk’s final status.

Ken Holland has said some of their young prospects will get long looks at making the roster. But the Wings are in need of some immediate impact players on offense, and especially on defense.

Holland remarked that he will be more aggressive in looking to upgrade the team through trades this off-season.

If that’s really the case, here’s what I have to say to Wings fans:  good luck with that!

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In theory I like and agree with the idea of Detroit improving through trades. But in reality it’s been a long time since Ken Holland has actually won a trade with another NHL franchise.

This past year, he made no substantial trades – Jakub Kindl was dealt to the Panthers for a 2017 6th round pick. In 2015 the most substantial trade Holland made was the one he lost, when he acquired Erik Cole from the Stars for Mattias Janmark as well as a prospect and an early draft pick.

Cole was injured shortly after becoming a Wing, before eventually retiring. Meanwhile, the up-and-coming Janmark is playing meaningful minutes for, and filling an important role for the Dallas Stars, in the playoffs.

In 2014 Holland also lost the only trade he made when he acquired David Legwand from the Predators for prospect Calle Jarnkrok. Legwand’s addition had little impact on the Wings, but Jarnkrok is evolving into a key player for Nashville.

The 2012 trade with Tampa Bay to reacquire Kyle Quincey for a 1st round pick is another one-sided trade that Detroit clearly lost.

Making trades can’t be easy, and nobody should expect Holland to win every trade he makes, but Holland hasn’t made a positive trade of any significance in the past ten years.

The 2008 Brad Stuart trade and the 2007 Todd Bertuzzi trade worked out for Detroit, but those were both a while back and Stuart and Bertuzzi are long gone from the Wings.

Holland hasn’t just missed the boat on trades he’s made in the past decade. He’s also underwhelmed on trades he’s failed to make. In 2011, defenseman Brent Burns was on the trading block and the Wings reportedly had interest in acquiring his services.

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Ultimately, Burns wound up being dealt to San Jose for a reasonable price. There he has blossomed into an all-star, physical force, and offensive talent the Wings still sorely lack along their blue line.

If Burns was on the trading block today the Wings would have to be interested. Of course Burns isn’t going anywhere. He is spearheading the Sharks’ playoff run and is too valuable an asset to part with.

In addition to the Sharks, other teams like the Kings, Blackhawks, Penguins and Predators have been much more active in the trade market than the Red Wings have been recently. Those teams don’t always win their trades, but they are bold enough to try.

And in trying sometimes they succeed. It’s probably not a coincidence that all of those teams have seen more playoff success than the Wings have in the past six or seven years.

If Ken Holland wants to get the Wings back where they belong – advancing in the playoffs and not just making it to them – he’s going to have to be bolder than he’s been and go after some bigger fish – think Jacob Trouba, Sami Vatanen, Roman Josi, even Oliver Ekman-Larsson.  And he’s going to have to take a chance on trading some significant prospects, picks, and/or players for such established talents.

Next: Red Wings Should Stay Away from Alexander Radulov

Ken Holland gets paid to make the tough decisions. It’s time he start making them again, in the form of some winning trades for the Detroit Red Wings.