Red Wings Alumni Report: Klim Kostin Thriving since Trade to San Jose

Klim Kostin has scored five points in six games since Detroit traded him to San Jose, sparking a major bounceback for a player who didn't find much success in a limited role for the Red Wings.

Klim Kostin’s time with the Detroit Red Wings was supposed to be different.

He was supposed to be a high-potential addition to the bottom six, translating his size into scoring. He was supposed to be an investment, a project if you will, that panned out into a key contributor for a Red Wings team chasing the playoffs. He wasn’t supposed to be a cap dump at the trade deadline.

But maybe all along, he was just supposed to be a San Jose Shark.

Since moving out to NorCal, Kostin has found the scoring form that he lacked in a bit role with Detroit. He has five points (2G, 3A) in six games played for the Sharks, earning a bid on the top line alongside Mikael Granlund and Fabian Zetterlund at that. Whereas he was lucky to get 11 minutes in a game with the Red Wings, he’s averaging around 13 with the Sharks.

“(He) protects the puck well. (He’s) got skill,” San Jose coach David Quinn said after Kostin scored in Sunday’s game against Chicago. “He's got an edge to him. He did a good job with that line.”

Seeing such immediate success, it’s fair to wonder whether Detroit might have given up on Kostin too soon. It was certainly a point of ponderance for Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman when he traded him. Mere hours after the deal, Yzerman described his torn nature with moving on from the Kostin experiment.

“Klim and I and his agent had some discussions about possibly trading him to where he could get a bigger role,” Yzerman said in his post-deadline press conference March 8. “He's a young player, he's trying to try and establish himself in the NHL. So there was a little bit more communication and a little bit more ... upfront. This doesn't come as a surprise whether Klim or myself is real happy about it — neither of us, really, because we were hoping it would work out in Detroit.”

Kostin found that bigger role so far with the Sharks, but that team’s situation is nowhere near comparable to the Red Wings’ standing. Whereas Detroit is in a playoff race with a roster full of depth, San Jose is the last place team in the NHL. It can afford to experiment and give a player like Kostin an outsized role in a way the Red Wings simply couldn’t. Because of that, the situation never clicked for Kostin in Detroit and it was time for the proverbial change of scenery.

There are still intriguing elements to Kostin’s game that are worth second guessing. His size helps him win battles along the boards, and he has shown in San Jose that he can score when given the chance. However, the regret of hindsight doesn’t distract from how the Kostin experiment was trending in Detroit.

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Anthony Mantha

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Pius Suter

At one point this season, Suter was scoring with rapidity and even earned a first-line promotion for a scorching hot Vancouver team. Suter has cooled off a little since then, falling into more of a checking role than being a scoring threat. However, he played 20 minutes and took five shots in a 3-2 win over Buffalo on Tuesday, a trend that could cause him to pick up his scoring pace from here on out.

Gustav Nyquist

Something about Tennessee must sit well with Gustav Nyquist. Since signing with Nashville over the summer, Nyquist has tied his career high in points and set a new one in assists with 42 (tied for the most of any level he’s played at with his sophomore year at the University of Maine).

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Alex Nedeljkovic’s career with the Red Wings didn’t end on a high note, but he got a little revenge on Sunday. He stopped 25 of 28 shots he faced in a 6-3 win over Detroit. His performance didn’t win his team the game singlehandedly, but it was one of his better starts since playing Chicago in mid-February.

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