Detroit Red Wings: Mike Green traded to Edmonton prior to deadline

Detroit Red Wings General Manager Steve Yzerman has opened up the team’s deadline moves after trading Mike Green ahead of today’s deadline.

The 2020 NHL Trade deadline comes and goes at 3 p.m. ET today, and the Detroit Red Wings are in the market to make a few moves. General Manager Steve Yzerman has already gotten the ball rolling after moving Mike Green to the Edmonton Oilers late last night. The Red Wings held Green and Andreas Athanasiou out of Sunday night’s contest against the Calgary Flames for “asset management,” as the team proclaimed.

The team reportedly agreed to a trade to move the veteran defenseman Green to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for forward Kyle Brodziak and a conditional fourth-round pick. The year of the pick is slated to be in 2020 or 2021 with the full details still to emerge, but the deal has been completed, and Green is headed to Edmonton. To officially complete this trade, Green waived his modified no-trade clause to allow this trade to happen between new GM Yzerman and former Red Wings GM Ken Holland.

Looking at the loss of the trade, the team is losing Green, who has three goals and eight assists for eleven points over forty-eight games played. Green was speculated to be moved, so this is no shock for the organization as he is a veteran defenseman who has benefits that he can offer to the Oilers, including the ability to join a power-play line if needed. The fifteen-year veteran of the National Hockey League (NHL) has spent the last five years with the Red Wings and will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

Coming back to Red Wings in the deal is Brodziak, who was a right-handed shooting center in the NHL. Brodziak was a fourteen-year veteran of the NHL, playing six years with the Minnesota Wild, three years with the St. Louis Blues, and five with the Edmonton Oilers, returning to the team for the 2018-19 season. In 2018-19 Brodziak played in seventy games, scoring six goals, tallying three assists for nine points with a minus-fourteen rating.

The kicker with Brodziak is that he is on the Long-Term Injured Reserve and is not currently playing hockey. He carries a cap hit of $1.15 million that is coming to the Red Wings on top of the retained salary from Green that the Detroit Red Wings are going to be paying. The best part about this deal is the conditional fourth-round pick the Red Wings acquired.

The 2020 fourth-round pick upgrades to a 2021 third-round pick if the Oilers reach the Conference  Final and if Green plays in half of the games.

This was an excellent trade to kick off the deadline for Yzerman, who just netted a fourth-round pick that could become a third-round pick for Green. Hopefully, before the deadline officially comes and goes, Yzerman can work some more magic to stockpile more draft picks.