Via Kukla’s Korner, TSN’s Scott Cullen penned a set of “trade deadline playbooks” for the Eastern and Western Conferences, and Cullen’s Eastern Conference Playbook discusses the Wings’ outlook as we head toward the February 26th trade deadline:
DETROIT RED WINGS
UFA in 2018: LW David Booth, D Mike Green
RFA in 2018: LW Andreas Athanasiou, C Dylan Larkin, RW Anthony Mantha, RW Martin Frk, G Petr Mrazek
No-Trade Clauses: C Frans Nielsen (modified), RW Gustav Nyquist, RW Justin Abdelkader, C Darren Helm, D Mike Green, D Niklas Kronwall (modified), D Trevor Daley, G Jimmy Howard (modified)
Others of Interest: LW Tomas Tatar, D Xavier Ouellet
Top Prospects: C Michael Rasmussen, D Dennis Cholowski, LW Evgeny Svechnikov, D Filip Hronek, D Joe Hicketts, D Gustav Lindstrom, D Vili Saarijarvi, C Dominic Turgeon, G Filip Larsson, D Libor Sulak, RW Givani Smith, D Daniel Renouf, D Kasper Kotkansalo, C Christoffer Ehn
The Plan: As expected, the Red Wings are going to be sellers. Mike Green should be a popular commodity approaching the deadline, particularly for a contending team that might be more inclined to use him in a third-pairing and power play quarterback role. As Detroit attempts to rebuild, anything they can do to shed a bad contract or two would be advisable.
There have been suggestions that the Wings may try to unload Darren Helm as well as Howard, Mrazek and/or Ouellet (with the Ouellet rumor coming from Bob McKenzie himself), but I’m not sure how much Trader Ken really wants to get rid of his loyal guys like Helm.
