Month: February 2018

Red Wings trade Tomas Tatar to the Vegas Golden Knights

The Detroit Red Wings have traded Tomas Tatar to the Vegas Golden Knights:

Update: From the Free Press’s Helene St. James:

Update: Pending a trade call, the Detroit Red Wings have sent Tomas Tatar to Vegas.

The move was made close to the 3 p.m. deadline, and all trades have to be OK’ed by the NHL in order to go through. The Wings receive a first round pick in 2018, a second-round pick in 2019, and a third-round pick in 2021.

The Wings had been looking to move defenseman Mike Green, a pending unrestricted free agent, but teams were wary because Green has not played since suffering a neck injury Feb. 15.

Update #2:

Update #2: From the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:

 It took until late in the afternoon, but the Red Wings finally pulled off a trade before Monday’s deadline.

They traded forward Tomas Tatar to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a 2018 first-round pick, 2019 second- round pick and 2021 third-round draft pick.

Tatar, 27, signed a four-year contract last summer with an average cap hit for $5.3 million.

Tatar played in 62 games this season with 16 goals and 12 assists (28 points), with a minus-8 plus-minus rating.

The Red Wings were unable to trade defenseman Mike Green, 32, who will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Cup of Khan: On Ken Holland’s deadline philosophy and players in play

MLive’s Ansar Khan reminds Red Wings fans who “they’re dealing with” (pun intended) this morning:

“I want us to be a team that can compete for the Stanley Cup,” general manager Ken Holland said earlier in the week. “We’re competitive. We’re not quite where we need to be. To be where we want to be, I got to acquire draft picks. We need to hit on those draft picks, and the more draft picks that I can acquire, or young players through trades, is a better chance that we’re going to wake up three, four, five years from now and start to see the young players coming on to the team and having an impact on the team.”

Defenseman Mike Green is the most likely player to be dealt because he’s an unrestricted free agent after the season. Detroit has had extensive talks with Tampa Bay, but the Lightning’s first priority is Erik Karlsson, the star Ottawa appears poised to deal. Green has missed six games with a sore neck but is close to returning.

The Red Wings are trying to move one of Tomas Tatar or Gustav Nyquist. Nashville has shown interest, but there are stumbling blocks with both. Tatar has three years remaining at a cap hit of $5.3 million, which might be too rich for some teams. Nyquist has a full no-trade clause.

Toronto is interested in Luke Glendening as a fourth-line shutdown center but doesn’t appear willing to meet the Red Wings’ asking price of a second-round pick or good prospect.

The Red Wings made it known weeks ago that defenseman Xavier Ouellet is available. He hasn’t cracked the lineup on a regular basis.

Continued

 

The Athletic’s Custance on Mike Green

Of note from The Athletic’s Craig Custance’s Monday morning “Ten Thoughts” column:

[Mike] Green has full trade protection, but according to an NHL source, he has already given the Red Wings clearance to trade him to at least Washington and Tampa Bay. And those two teams remain the most logical destination for Green, if a deal gets done. The Lightning are loaded with possible ammunition and would probably net the best return, but the availability of Erik Karlsson and Ryan McDonagh pushes Green down the priority list. You have to assume the Lightning will exhaust all efforts to land a better defenseman before moving on to Green, while the Capitals might only be interested if they can get him on the cheap. Neither scenario is great for the Red Wings.

Continued (paywall)

Prospect round-up: Griffins, Walleye win sold-out games; Setkov heads back to J20; Fulcher wins 29th game

In the AHL, the superbly-performing Filip Hronek and Matt Lorito (1G, 1A) scored regulation goals, Dominic Turgeon scored the only shootout marker and Matej Machovsky stopped 26 of 28 shots and 3 shootout shooters as the Grand Rapids Griffins won 3-2 over the Iowa Wild in a shootout.

The Griffins’ website posted a recap:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Griffins, Walleye win sold-out games; Setkov heads back to J20; Fulcher wins 29th game

Zetterberg talks playoff push, trade deadline with Aftonbladet’s Bjurman

Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg spoke with Aftonbladet’s Per Bjurman after the Red Wings’ 3-2 overtime victory over the New York Rangers on Sunday.

Zetterberg made it clear that the Red Wings are not giving up on their playoff hopes, even though the team knows that their odds of actually making a playoff spot are long (and what follows is roughly translated from Swedish):

Zetterberg: “Just hang up the phone and hope”

New York. Will the Detroit Red Wings get into the playoff race after all?

They won their second game in two days with an overtime win over the hard-luck New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden tonight, and they’re suddenly “just” five points behind the playoff line.

“Yes, but there are many teams in between us, so it will be tough. We have to win virtually every game now,” says Henrik Zetterberg to SportBladet after the 3-2 win.

Continue reading Zetterberg talks playoff push, trade deadline with Aftonbladet’s Bjurman

Red Wings-Rangers wrap-up: sometimes hope is relentless

The Detroit Red Wings defeated the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime on Sunday night, and the Red Wings are now only 5 points out of a playoff spot. Scary, eh?

The Red Wings did not play their best 60-minute effort, with a team playing 2 games in 2 nights, 4 in 6 and a total of 10 over the course of 18 afternoons and evenings wilting considerably in the 3rd period…

But Jimmy Howard was excellent in goal, the Wings were able to “win the race to two” goals, and Daley delivered in OT.

Our friends from New York are only 3 points behind the Red Wings, but the story for the Rangers is very different.

After losing their seventh straight game, Henrik Lundqvist summarized the Rangers’ stead, as the New York Daily News’s Justin Tasch noted:

Continue reading Red Wings-Rangers wrap-up: sometimes hope is relentless

Red Wings-Rangers quick take: Howard and Daley yield exhausted Wings committing robbery in Manhattan

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to hand the New York Rangers their seventh straight loss on Jean Ratelle’s jersey retirement night.

The Wings played two really good periods, they were awful in the 3rd period–playing their 2nd game in 2 nights, 3rd in 4 and 10th in 17 evenings and afternoons–but the Wings persisted, with Jimmy Howard stopping 36 of 38 shots and the Wings winning 3-2 on a goal from Trevor Daley scored with only 5.6 seconds remaining in OT.

Detroit won’t make the playoffs, but they’re only 5 points out of a spot right now, and the Wings played a fantastic rope-a-dope game despite being out-shot 19-11 in the 3rd period.
Continue reading Red Wings-Rangers quick take: Howard and Daley yield exhausted Wings committing robbery in Manhattan

Clear Day coming up for the Griffins

According to MLive’s Ansar Khan and Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff, the Red Wings have a big decision to make as they weigh whether to use 2 of their non-roster emergency 4 post-trade deadline call-ups:

Duff confirms:

AHL clear day rosters – only players on the roster on clear day are eligible to compete in the Calder Cup playoffs – is also Monday. That means if the Wings want goalie Jared Coreau or left-winger Tyler Bertuzzi to be eligible for the playoffs, they’d be required to assign them to AHL Grand Rapids tomorrow, even if it were merely a paper transaction and they were recalled the next day without ever actually leaving Detroit.

It would however, require the Wings to use up two of their four post-trade deadline call ups.

Custance: Green won’t play vs. Rangers

From The Athletic’s Craig Custance:

Update:

 

Kulfan’s deadline chat with Holland

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan spoke with Red Wings GM Ken Holland ahead of the trade deadline:

General manager Ken Holland is looking for the best possible return on several assets – and those returns could be bigger for the Red Wings when all 30 teams are motivated to make moves, rather than just the playoff contenders now.

“It’s not like I feel that I’ve got to do a deal because I’ve got these unrestricted free agents,” Holland said. “It appears right now more of a buyers’ market. There’s more teams that are selling. The standings are so close, teams aren’t sure what they’re going to do. There’s not enough teams that are really guaranteed a playoff spot.”

And if Holland doesn’t get the type of deal he wants Monday, or in June – he’s willing to wait for that right package at the trade deadline next season.

“If it’s not this time period, and it’s not at the draft, then the reality is, it’s probably a year from now,” Holland said. “My mindset isn’t so much about 2017-18 and ’18-’19. It’s about ’19-’20 and trying to acquire assets that I’m hoping can impact this team down the road. If nothing’s there that makes sense, and all I’m doing is helping somebody else out, and we’re not getting what I don’t think is fair value for our players, we’ll go back to the summer and we’ll start all over again. There will be more teams in the mix.”

Continued