Detroit Red Wings should claim forward Adam Henrique

Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman needs to strongly consider putting a waiver claim on forward Adam Henrique.

Recently the Anaheim Ducks placed 31-year old centerman, Adam Henrique, on waivers just two years into his lucrative five-year deal that is worth a touch over $29 million.  This comes as a shock even though the veteran forward is off to a bit of a slow start this season with the rebuilding Ducks, who sit with an overall record of 6-8-3 through their first 17 games of the season.

So far in 2021, Henrique has recorded three goals and one assist in 16 contests while skating to a minus -8 rating.  Those numbers won’t exactly jump out at you, but similar to the Detroit Red Wings, the Ducks are not exactly an offensive juggernaut.

The Ducks as a team rank 28th, scoring a total of 33 goals, yet rank 14th in the league, having allowed 45 goals.

This really resembles the Red Wings who rank 25th with 37 goals for and 29th having yielded 63 goals.

Here is why the Detroit Red Wings should claim Adam Henrique.

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First off, why not?  The Detroit Red Wings are simply atrocious for the second straight year and don’t really have many bright spots.

It’s apparent that Yzerman is willing to ride this year out with the aging veterans such as Frans Nielsen, Valtteri Filppula, and Darren Helm rather than the younger prospected like Evgeny Svechnikov, who is on his last legs and developing players like Givani Smith and Michael Rasmussen.

With Luke Glendening, Bobby Ryan, Sam Gagner, Helm, and Filppula all in the final year of their current contract, adding Henrique adds some veteran stability to what is expected to be a youthful forward group as early as next season.

Henrique has recorded 20 or more goals in five of his last seven seasons, notching 30 once back in 2016-16 as a member of the New Jersey Devils.

The veteran forward is coming off of back-to-back seasons of 42 and 43 point seasons where he’s scored 18 and 26 goals, respectively. Over ten NHL seasons, Henrique has recorded 189 goals, 193 assists totaling 382 points in 681 career games.

The Detroit Red Wings currently have about $8.8 million in available cap space per CapFriendly, with a bunch of money set to come off the books at seasons’ end.  Henrique could slide right in on Detroit’s third line behind Dylan Larkin and Robby Fabbri with the ability to move up if there are injuries or a COVID-19 outbreak.

It would also be somewhat of a homecoming for Henrique to join the Red Wings after spending four years in junior playing for the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), where he won back-to-back Memorial Cups playing alongside a couple of other NHLers in Taylor Hall and Ryan Ellis.