The NHL trade deadline is less than two months away, and teams have already begun to prepare themselves for the league’s annual trade bonanza. The Detroit Red Wings are no different, with reports pointing to them and the Buffalo Sabres sizing each other up for a potential trade.
Regardless is whether a deal between the Red Wings and Sabres ever comes to fruition, there is a bit more pressure on Red Wings general manager to improve his team than in years prior. After finishing a point shy of a playoff spot last season, the team got off to a sluggish start this season, which ultimately resulted in head coach Derek Lalonde’s dismissal and Todd McLellan’s arrival in his place. McLellan has helped get their season back on track, and now the team is poised for another playoff push in the final months of the season.
While the Red Wings’ current position is not a place that would justify going all-in on a big-ticket item on the trade market, there are some options out there, some more costly than others, that could provide the team with a boost as they try to end their eight-year playoff drought.
Bowen Byram
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the player the Red Wings are targeting from Buffalo is forward Dylan Cozens. The 2019 draftee is a big-bodied forward who some think could break out with a fresh start, but there’s another 2019 draftee Detroit should look at acquiring.
Acquired from the Colorado Avalanche ahead of last year’s trade deadline, defenseman Bowen Byram was the fourth pick in the 2019 draft and the only defenseman taken ahead of Moritz Seider, who the Red Wings took with the sixth pick. Byram is a left-handed defenseman with 32 points in 64 games since joining the Sabres, but there is still this sense that he has yet to truly breakout. He played behind Devon Toews and Samuel Girard in Colorado, and now he plays behind Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, so it’s safe to say he has never played in a premiere role in the NHL.
The Red Wings are in the unique position of building and cementing their core while also having a reason to add at the deadline. Byram would join Simon Edvinsson on the team’s left side of the blue line, and the two of them along with Seider and prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka could form a top-four defensive group that could be the envy of the league in a few years. Detroit’s blue line absolutely needs some work, and betting on Byram could pay dividends for years to come.
The Sabres acquired Byram from the Avalanche last year in exchange for center Casey Mittelstadt. Like Byram, Mittelstadt was/is a former top-10 pick that needed a new opportunity. The Red Wings don’t have many players that fit that description, but there is a sense that the Sabres are looking to add quality veterans to their young lineup. The Red Wings have plenty of those, and that may be the basis of the reported Cozens deal – and it could be the basis of a Byram trade as well.
Nils Höglander
Up front, the Red Wings’ lineup has mostly settled in. However, there is still room for another forward to come in and round out the team’s top-nine.
The Vancouver Canucks are enduring a dysfunctional season as trade rumors currently surround their top two centers, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. While it looks like Miller will be the one that goes, there is also growing chatter about the future of 24-year-old winger Nils Höglander. Just months after putting pen to paper on a three-year extension with the Canucks, he seems to have fallen out of favor with Vancouver’s coaching staff, and teams have taken notice.
In what amounted to a mini-breakout season, Höglander crossed the 20-goal threshold for the first time in his career last season, finishing with 24 goals and 36 points in 80 games. He was heralded for his soft skills and creativity as a prospect, but it was his increased physicality as well as his willingness to go to the net that stood out last season. It’s one thing to be able to dazzle with the puck behind the net, it’s another to go to the high-danger and high-traffic areas and put yourself in a position to score. He did that last season.
For whatever reason, things haven’t clicked for Höglander and the Canucks this season. Even though his extension has yet to kick in, Vancouver may look to get out of that deal before it starts. While they may look to package him in a deal for a bigger piece, they could also send him by himself to a team willing to give him a clean slate. He is probably one of the cheaper options the Red Wings could take a look at, and he would be well worth the cost if they can unlock his offensive potential.
Erik Karlsson
Realistically, the Red Wings need to add a defender that is sturdy and dependable. Their defense’s struggles haven’t been because it lacks playmakers, the struggles have come from defensive miscues from players they should be able to depend on.
That being said, you don’t always get the opportunity to acquire a three-time Norris Trophy winner.
Erik Karlsson is only in his second season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but it sounds like the Swedish defenseman will be getting a new address before the trade deadline. The 34-year-old defender is well known for his offensive prowess – so much so that he is a main talking point when people talk about creating a “best defensive-defenseman” award because of his shortcomings defensively.
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So then why should the Red Wings look into acquiring him? First, he is basically Swedish royalty, and his presence in the locker room would have a similar effect as Patrick Kane did when he joined the team, especially for the team’s young Swedish defensemen such as Edvinsson and, perhaps most importantly, Axel Sandin Pellikka. Second, he should be able to feast on lesser competition as the Red Wings force feed the toughest minutes to Seider – not to mention the boost he would provide to an already strong Red Wings power play.
With a cap hit of $10 million, the Penguins would have to retain 50 percent of it for a deal to enter the realm of possibility, but Pittsburgh would probably be willing to do so if the return is right. The Red Wings would then have to include someone like Justin Holl to balance the money out, and then some combination of picks and prospects/young players to entice the Penguins.
Karlsson is probably the least-likely of the three targets listed here, but he is the type of player general manager Steve Yzerman has liked to put around the young players in Detroit. It shouldn’t be surprising if the Red Wings are connected to Karlsson, or any of these players for that matter, as we get closer and closer to the deadline.
