Detroit Red Wings Face Buy-or-Sell Decision for Trade Deadline

Adam Proteau says the Detroit Red Wings should play it safe ahead of the NHL's trade deadline despite still being in the playoff race.

The Detroit Red Wings began this NHL regular season with a promising combination of up-and-coming youngsters and seasoned veterans. Unfortunately, as we should all know by now, progress is not guaranteed to be linear, and the Wings have not enjoyed a steady rise through the Atlantic Division standings. 

After 48 games, Detroit is 21-19-8, a mark that puts them in sixth place in the Atlantic. Technically, they have a better points percentage (.521) than the fifth-place Florida Panthers (.510), and the Wings have three games in hand on the Panthers. Detroit is also five points behind the fourth-in-the-Atlantic Buffalo Sabres, but they’re only six points ahead of the eighth-place Montreal Canadiens.

As you can see, it’s a true mixed bag for the Red Wings thus far this year. And that leaves Detroit GM Steve Yzerman with difficult decisions as the league speeds toward its March 3 trade deadline: Does he deal away some of his veteran assets, or instead, try to add pieces to get his team into the playoffs? Or, perhaps, both? The only thing that’s clear at this point is that long-suffering Wings fans who haven’t experienced post-season hockey since 2016, and who haven’t had their team win a playoff round since 2013, cannot accept that the status quo is good enough.

If that means Yzerman bids goodbye to winger (and pending unrestricted free agent) Tyler Bertuzzi, so be it. If that means seeing what the market is for depth forwards Adam Erne, Oskar Sundqvist and Pius Suter, and D-men Olli Maatta, Jake Walman and Robert Hagg (all of whom will also be UFAs this summer), that should be fine as well. 

If that means the Wings use their abundance of salary cap space to be a third-party option that assumes a couple of bad contracts to facilitate trades for other teams, that’s acceptable, too. They currently have approximately $6.125 million in cap space, but Cap Friendly projects that number will skyrocket to almost $27 million by the deadline. 

Like all GMs, Yzerman has to keep his eye on the bigger, long-term picture, as well as the present-day state of his team. It’s a delicate balance but a necessary one. And with so many teams between them and one of the two wild-card playoff berths, the Wings are probably better off taking the safe route, peeling off non-essential assets, and building for a better run in the 2023-24 campaign.

There’s also the matter of locking up captain and star center Dylan Larkin to a contract extension. Larkin will be a UFA this summer, but it’s hard to envision the Wings allowing the 26-year-old to leave via free agency when he’s at the peak of his powers. 

That said, locking up Larkin, who has a cap hit of $6.1 million this season, will not come cheaply. Detroit has more than enough cap space next year (more than $41.5 million, to be precise) to retain Larkin, but they’ve only got 11 players signed for the season. Yzerman will need to be judicious in his signings and trades, but he’s shown he’s unafraid to make large-consequence moves. Now, it’s about making the right moves.

For many years, the Red Wings were the gold standard for NHL franchises. But once you’re outside your optimal competitive window, it’s not easy to get back to those lofty heights. Ask the Chicago Blackhawks about that. For now, though, Yzerman and Wings brass are still wading through the muck, trying to clear out a path to Stanley Cup glory once again. The steps they take in the coming weeks will help determine how long that path will be.