As the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue to progress and we draw closer to a pivotal offseason for Steve Yzerman and the Detroit Red Wings, it feels like an appropriate time to consider Detroit's potential trade assets.
Spending on unrestricted free agents tends to be a recipe to overpay, and the list of UFAs this summer isn't an especially compelling one. From a Red Wing perspective, the issue is that the players best positioned to meaningfully upgrade the roster (e.g. Sam Reinhart or Nikita Zadorov) are unlikely to fit within the team's price range.
Detroit got good value out of some of its depth signings last summer in the form of players like Daniel Sprong and Christian Fischer, but if the Red Wings want to bring in top six forwards or top four defensemen, the likeliest path will have to be the trade market.
Before proceeding any further, it's worth returning to a comment GM Steve Yzerman made at the start of the 2023-24 season:
"I think you have to have an honest assessment or an accurate assessment of where you're at. There can be a danger to [trying to] jump ahead, and what does that mean? All of a sudden you're trading your top prospects and trading your draft picks before you have that group. If you're acquiring players that are gonna be with you for an extended stretch of time, that's good."
For better or worse, Detroit stood pat at the trade deadline this year, with Yzerman explaining he didn't believe the available options were worth the picks and prospects it would take to acquire them. This summer, that dynamic is liable to look a bit different, with increased flexibility making trades easier than they are in the thick of a playoff race.
Even if Yzerman and Derek Lalonde are reluctant to name the 2025 postseason as an explicit objective, this year's near miss suggests that the Red Wings are ready to move future assets for present help.
With all that in mind, let's consider the trade chips with which Yzerman will get to work this summer.
Draft Capital
As you can see in the below graphic from PuckPedia, Detroit is well stocked with draft picks over the coming three drafts, with all of its own first through third rounders each year, beginning with the 15th overall selection in June's draft.
Red Wings' Draft Capital 2024-2026, courtesy of PuckPedia
PuckPedia.com
"Each year, we've tried to add draft picks, we've tried to sign any of our unrestricted free agents that we could or wanted to, and the players that we couldn't or weren't, we traded at the deadline, and I guess you're out of your rebuild when you're not doing that at the deadline," Yzerman said at aforementioned pre-season press conference. Even if the Red Wings didn't buy at this year's deadline, by Yzerman's criteria, not selling suggests the rebuild (or at least the most painful part of it) is over.
While of course Detroit won't be in the business of wantonly giving away its draft picks, all of these selections should be on the table as trade pieces this summer.
Roster Players
Robby Fabbri
Fabbri is 28 years old, with one year left on a three-year, $12 million contract extension he signed with the Red Wings in December 2021. He's coming off a career-high 18 goals and, after a perilous start to the season marred by injury, finished the season with 68 games played, his highest total since his rookie year. Fabbri was effective as a depth scorer, and Detroit could well bring him back to fill that same role in 2024-25 (especially if Sprong departs as expected in free agency). However, he could also serve a similar function to Dominik Kubalik's role in last summer's trade that brought Alex DeBrincat to Detroit: as a plug-and-play scoring option (albeit a downgrade within a larger package) for a team moving out a more dynamic attacking player.
Jake Walman
This is one name Red Wing fans likely won't want to see moved this summer, but Walman merits mention here if only for the value he provides. Walman has two years remaining at his contract at $3.4 million-per-season. That's excellent value for a player who's looked perfectly at home in a top pair, shutdown role. He could be an extremely attractive asset to a potential trade parter, though it's hard to see a move making sense for Detroit unless it returns an even better defenseman.
Ben Chiarot
Chiarot signed a 4 year, $19,000,000 contract with the Red Wings in July 2022. It's a deal that drew the ire of the online analytics community, but it was also a reflection of the esteem in which NHL GMs hold Chiarot as a fast and physical defender. He would likely remain in demand should Detroit make him available this summer. This doesn't seem like an especially likely scenario, and Chiarot does have a 10-team no-trade list as part of his contract, but it is at least an avenue for Yzerman to consider.
Prospects
Jonatan Berggren
Berggren's name has been in trade rumors since December, and his failure to solidify a place in the Red Wings' lineup in his post-deadline call-up made it seem even more likely he might be moved. At present, Berggren is lighting up the Calder Cup Playoffs for the Grand Rapids Griffins, with six points in five games and the game-winning goal in all three of GR's first round victories. Maybe that means Detroit wants to give him another shot at earning a roster spot in training camp, or maybe it means he's only boosted his value. With that said, promising AHL+ scorers who struggle to lock in an NHL role are not exactly in short supply, which may limit his value.
Simon Edvinsson
As with Walman, the logic behind the inclusion of Edvinsson's name here isn't about likelihood or the probability of it helping Detroit improve but rather value. Edvinsson was excellent down the stretch for the Red Wings and a defenseman with his physical tools who has demonstrated the ability to be a strong defender at the NHL level make him perhaps the best singular trade at the Red Wings disposal. Of course, for that very same reason, Detroit will likely want to keep Edvinsson under team control.
Marco Kasper
Kasper probably falls somewhere between Berggren and Edvinsson in terms of the likelihood of being moved, but he's another player enjoying a strong Calder Cup Playoff, who conceivably could be a central piece in a package for a marquee acquisition. After a slow start to his season, Kasper has been excellent for the Griffins, and his pugnacious two-way game should translate well to the NHL, be it in Detroit or elsewhere.
