The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin discusses Mike Green’s status after not being moved at the trade deadline:
Mike Green
Why he didn’t go: Ugh. This one hurts. Of the clear-cut rentals, Green was the only big-ticket one not to get traded Monday. Karlsson and Pacioretty can still get traded later, but Green, a pending UFA, will now likely be lost for nothing. He agreed to waive his no-trade clause to head to the Lightning or Washington Capitals, but nothing materialized. As GM Ken Holland admitted, teams were concerned about Green’s neck injury, which has shelved him since Feb. 15, and one team even asked for his medical reports. It’s pretty clear the injury scared teams away from a trade, especially when Holland’s asking price would’ve been high, likely including a first-round pick and a prospect.
What happens now: The Red Wings have expressed interest in re-signing Green, and he likes playing in Detroit. But it’s clear the Wings are years away from Stanley Cup contention. Green doesn’t have a ring, has never even played deeper than Round 2 of the playoffs and turns 33 in October. He’s still good enough to earn a multi-year offer – he went to the All-Star Game this year, after all – so he’s not yet at the stage of his career where he has to sign a one-year “mercenary” deal and hope to get flipped to a contender at the trade deadline. Green should receive legit offers from Stanley Cup hopefuls. Maybe a reunion with the Capitals is in the offing if they can’t re-sign John Carlson?
The Red Wings want to re-sign Green and Green is at least amicable to that concept, and if I may be blunt, I’m just not surprised regarding that result. Holland still believes that a veteran core accentuated by a couple of youngsters is the way to go on defense, and Green does provide more offense than anybody else on the Wings’ blueline. That being said, Green would have to take a pay cut on a short-term deal–and the Red Wings should weigh when/and/or/if they feel that Filip Hronek, Joe Hicketts, Dennis Cholowski and Vili Saarijarvi might be able to step in and help.
As a fan, I’m not thrilled with the idea of the Wings’ defense probably looking a lot like it does now, but it would not surprise me if that is the case. It will be up to the player and GM.
I understand that KH was in a bit of a bind, btw Green’s injury and, his reportedly very limited list of teams he would go to (do we know for sure it was only Bolts and Caps?. But his lame excuse that we wanted to re-sign him anyway is just terrible. If you trade him and he wants to come back and you want to sign him, you can do so on July 1. If he signs elsewhere, he didn’t want to come back. I’m shocked KH couldn’t find any takers, even with retained salary and stiff conditionals regarding his injury.
I give him full props for what he got for Tats, but he dropped the ball here, 100%.
He should have talked with Green in the summer. Hey Mike. If we’re not in a playoff spot we’d like to move you. Tell me what factors are important to you in approving a trade…going to a contender? Certain cities? East? West? Certain coaches? What matters to you?
Great. Thanks Mike. We’ll talk later.
Hey Mike. It’s Christmas. Things aren’t looking so good. We’d like to move you. Let’s look at the standings. Let’s make a list of yes, no, and maybe?
Great. Thanks Mike. I’ll start making a few calls and get back to you.
Hey Mike. I have 8 teams interested. Let’s review together. Oh you hate Babcock. Cool. Toronto is off the list. Now we have 7. Oh you don’t want to be in the West. Fine. Vegas and San Jose are off the list. Now we have 5. Are you good with these 5? Yes? Perfect. I’m going to work the phones and try to send you to one of these 5 teams.
Not rocket science. Instead, we had 2 teams that both went in other directions…and then Kenny had no authority to pawn him off on someone else at the last minute because Green’s NTC was never proactively addressed. So then we spin a story about wanting to re-sign him instead of admit this was botched.