Red Wings: Three takeaways from Steve Yzerman’s first trade deadline

Detroit Red Wings General Manager Steve Yzerman has completed his first trade deadline with his new organization, here are three takeaways.

The Detroit Red Wings brought in General Manager (GM) Steve Yzerman, and it has led fans to believe in the “Yzer-plan,” to get through the rebuild. Over the last few days, Yzerman has pushed through his first trade deadline as GM of the Red Wings, and fans have had some mixed reactions. Yzerman made two trades at the deadline, coincidentally, both with former Red Wings GM Ken Holland, who is now with the Edmonton Oilers.

With the Red Wings being as bad as they are, down in the trenches, they did not have plenty of assets to move at the deadline, but Yzerman still made it work. Going into the deadline, fans had a good understanding that no blockbuster deals were going to be made, but there should be a stream of draft picks heading back to the Red Wings. Yzerman stuck to his “Yzer-plan” and brought the Red Wings some draft pick capital and added some cap hits that will run out after this season.

The three takeaways that had the most traction with Yzerman’s deadline moves are… whom he moved, who/what was acquired, and who stayed put. Each of these three facets helps fans to get an idea of how Yzerman did, ranking the two deals. First and foremost, looking at cap space, Yzerman did a marvelous job this trade deadline, as well as setting them up for the 2020-21 season.

Now the Red Wings are WAY under the cap floor going into the 2020-21 season; they will eat up some of this cap by bringing in free agents this offseason *cough, Torey Krug, cough*. Over the deadline, bringing in Sam Gagner and Kyle Brodziak will not even affect the cap space since both of them are unrestricted free agents after this season concludes. Brodziak is not even playing; he is in the same situation as Johan Franzen, whom the Red Wings are currently still paying.

The way things are right now, Yzerman made some moves at the deadline to move an unrestricted free agent in Mike Green and a restricted free agent in Andreas Athanasiou, but still was able to get something for nothing in a sense. The Red Wings will have plenty of cap room next season and this trade deadline, kept them with around $1.5 million in cap space to finish out this season, with plenty of room next season to bring back some of the restricted free agents.