Detroit Red Wings: Mike Green’s trade stock takes a hit

The Detroit Red Wings do not possess a plethora of trade chips this season, and injuries are putting a damper on the limited selection they currently have to offer. The injury bug is going to make things even trickier than it already is for General Manager Steve Yzerman to make trades at this year’s trade deadline.

Last season the Detroit Red Wings moved Gustav Nyquist and Nick Jensen at the trade deadline, and in 2019-20 Mike Green seems to be one of their best assets to move. Andreas Athanasiou is the best player the Red Wings could move at the deadline, but Green is the best defenseman the team can afford to lose.

However, an injury bug has struck the Red Wings knocking out all of the tradeable players. Green is the latest player to hit the Injured Reserve (IR) for a couple of weeks, heading into the trade deadline.

Currently, the Detroit Red Wings have Athanasiou, Anthony Mantha, Jonathan Bernier, Danny DeKeyser, and Jonathan Ericsson on the IR. Besides these, Frans Nielsen and Valtteri Filppula are also out on a day-to-day basis. With Green being out for an extended period, his trade stock is going to suffer.

Green was heading into the trade deadline as a defenseman who can quarterback a power-play, maybe not as a scorer but as a distributor. For example, someone like the Washington Capitals who have a defenseman who sits up top and feeds a scorer who is positioned in the “Alex Ovechkin” slot could acquire Green.

Besides the power-play, Green can be an offensive defenseman for a team and help add depth to a competing team. A fringe wildcard team like the Arizona Coyotes may want to look into Green, but his latest injury puts a damper on things.

With just over a month to go until the trade deadline, Green is speculated to be missing at least a couple of weeks with the 2019-20 all-star break taking place during that time, breaking it up a little bit.

The way it stands now, with Green on the shelf, he has played in forty-one games, managing to score two goals and have six assists for eight total points on the season. Three of his eight points have come on the power-play for the putrid Detroit Red Wings. He has played to a 46.6% Corsi For percentage, leaving him just 1.2% shy of the team average.

With this injury, it seems like Green is going to lose even more value on the trade market. As it looks, Green will most likely only fetch a mid-round draft pick if things go well.

Yzerman has made it clear that he is looking to recoup picks for any assets he trades away, so anything he can get should be considered a win at this point.