Detroit Red Wings trade Tomas Tatar to Vegas Golden Knights
By Zac Snyder
The Detroit Red Wings pulled off a big trade just ahead of the deadline to send Tomas Tatar to the Vegas Golden Knights for a haul of three draft picks.
It took until right up until the 3 p.m. trade deadline but the Detroit Red Wings have reportedly made a trade. Tomas Tatar‘s days in Detroit are over as he heads to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a first, second and third round draft pick.
According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the first round pick will be this year, the second rounder will come next year and the third round pick will be in 2021.
Per Helene St. James, Vegas will be taking on all of the money owed to Tatar, who is under contract for three more seasons at a cap hit of $5.3 million.
That’s a chunk of money moving off the Red Wings books, but Tatar wasn’t one of the bloated contracts that is holding the team back. It will take more patience before big money to aging players falls off the books before the Red Wings can get back to contention and this trade feels like an admission of such.
Let the rebuild begin, officially, in earnest. It’s time to go all in on drafting and developing the next wave of talent while the old guard moves into retirement. It’s on Ken Holland (or a successor) to exhibit wisdom in spending the available cap space and making the right picks in the draft.
This looks like a good move on paper but it’s important to keep in mind the draft picks will be at or near the back of the round with the Golden Knights in contention for the President’s Trophy. What happens with the cap space and draft picks will determine how good this trade really is.
The most surprising Red Wings news of the day is probably what didn’t happen as Mike Green remained with the team as the trade deadline passed. Green, who is in the final year of his contract, was thought to be a prime target for a contender in need of a puck-moving defenseman, has been out since mid-February with a neck injury. The injury hasn’t been thought of as a major issue, but may have been enough to scare of any potential suitors.
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Are we to believe Holland didn’t have a single offer on the table he could have accepted? It’s one thing for an expected price to not be met, but failing to move a player with an expiring contract for whatever he could have gotten feels like maleficence.