Detroit Red Wings: Three players Ken Holland might like in Edmonton
By Bob Heyrman
Mike Green will have a trade market all of next season as long as he can remain healthy; if you’ve been following the Detroit Red Wings recently, you will realize that is anything but a guarantee.
Mike Green is owed 5.375-million entering the final year of his deal. He missed half of this past season due to a scary liver virus. Shortly after training camp started Green felt extremely fatigued; after seeing a specialist, it was determined a serious illness was attacking his liver. He missed plenty of time to start the regular season before entering the Wings lineup, automatically becoming one of the teams’ top defenders.
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The virus would once again return after the trade deadline leading to the Red Wings to shut Mike down for the remainder of the season. In the games, he played he was a steady offensive presence from the backend. The Wings struggle to provide offense from the backend, so the team was willing to live with his fairly regular d-zone blunders.
Green was paired with rookie Dennis Cholowski for several games until the lack of defensive zone coverage was far too weak to justify playing the pair together. They often struggled in their own end regularly struggling to identify their responsibilities.
Ken Holland trusts Green enough to resign the veteran defenseman when he hit the open market last summer. Green signed a two-year deal with the Wings, expect Steve Yzerman to deal the right-handed defender at some point this season to a contender looking to add a power-play, third pairing defender.
The Detroit Red Wings need to continue to acquire prospects and draft picks along with purging the veteran dead-weight type of players sprinkled throughout their roster. If Connor McDavid and company can play their way into a playoff spot, they will need to add a couple of defensemen to a weak group. The Oiler backend is very similar to the Wings; it’s a thin group. The Wings look to have a much brighter future though with prospects Filip Hronek, Cholowski, and Jared McIsaac.
Next. Breaking down the worst Ken Holland Transactions. dark
In 43 games last year Mike Green notched 26 points including 5 goals. He finished the year as a minus -1 with a CF% of 49.4%.