Red Wings: Three Players To Move At The Trade Deadline
By Tyler Kotila
With the 2019-20 Trade Deadline coming up, the Detroit Red Wings should be searching around the National Hockey League for trade suitors for whoever they can move to build more stock for the future. The team has a few assets that they could move without damaging the roster or system for the future.
Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman should be spending his 2019-20 NHL All-Star break searching for trade suitors as the deadline approaches. Newsflash, the Red Wings will not be pulling off a 2018-19 St. Louis Blues comeback, this season is lost and has been for a long time.
Yzerman needs to try and move any assets that he can move within reason. If teams were to call on Dylan Larkin or Anthony Mantha, the only thing they should hear is a dial tone when Yzerman hangs the phone up.
However, looking at the Red Wings roster, there are a few players that the team should be actively shopping on the trade market. The Red Wings rental offer,s may not be the most attractive, besides forward Andreas Athanasiou, who still has lost some of his luster.
Athanasiou could be the “big name” player whom Yzerman moves when it comes time to before the deadline. Besides Athanasiou, Yzerman may move veteran defenseman mike Green who still has some trading stock, even after falling off with the Red Wings lately.
Now, he may not be a rental, but some teams may be interested in the depth, Jonathan Bernier could be moved for any organizations who may want the goaltending depth to make a Stanley Cup Championship.
If Yzerman has any luck, he will walk away with some draft picks for the upcoming draft to further the growth of the Red Wings prospect farm. Yzerman is not going to capture a big name prospect unless there is a team that is desperate for help, in which case they may sacrifice a mediocre to mid-flight prospect.
Inevitably, the Red Wings have a plethora of “promising” prospects coming up through the system as it stands, adding more should only boost the “window” of opportunity as the team becomes competitive.
If the organization has “excess” prospects when in competitive mode, they could sacrifice one of the remaining prospects for, that veteran talent, to help them make a Stanley Cup run. This is wishful future thinking, but hopefully, Yzerman can pull some strings in the front office to make some moves.