Custance on the shape of the Wings to come

The Athletic’s Craig Custance penned an article discussing which members of the Red Wings will return for certain for the 2018-19 season, which players could be traded for other assets, and which players will not return to the Wings’ roster:

The Detroit Red Wings’ roster is a mix of young players and veterans on questionable long-term contracts, which means there won’t be a ton of turnover. The rebuild will happen gradually, as bad contracts are burned off and young players are eased into their opportunities.

So next season will be very much like this one for Red Wings fans. It’s going to be measured on the growth of important young players rather than points in the standings. If a couple young defensemen establish themselves as NHL players, like Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha did this past season, that bodes well for where things are headed in Detroit.

Still, there’s going to be turnover. There’s going to be debate on who should be moved. There will be opportunity for trades. With that in mind, here’s a look at every player on the Red Wings’ roster and whether they’ll be back when training camp opens…

Custance continues at significant length, and I’d be interested to hear who your “untouchables,” trade bait and “farewells” are…

Published by

George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.

16 thoughts on “Custance on the shape of the Wings to come”

  1. I would say there are no untouchables. Not even Larkin.

    Trade bait should be anyone with positive value. Listen to everything. Be open to anything. And don’t screw up like you did on Mike Green. Waiting does not always increase value and risks having a damaged asset. I called that perfectly by the way.

    Farewells…start with Kenny, Blashill, all the pro scouts, several amateur scouts, just wipe them all out.

    1. “Waiting does not always increase value….”
      You are right, I totally agree…..but, then why do most GMs do it? oh……..

  2. sure you predicted he’d get a serious neck injury 1+ year before the 2018 trade deadline lol

      1. It’s pretty widely known that I was clamouring to trade Green at the draft or before free agency. I was told how stupid that was. If we just wait until the deadline we’ll have teams lining up for him. His value would skyrocket if we wait. I then pointed out two things would happen. First, although more teams could absorb his cap hit if we waited, supply would increase as other d-men from struggling teams hit the market (Karlsson, McDonagh, etc…). And finally, the risk of injury was greater than the expected rise in value.

        Hate me all you want. But this unfortunately unfolded exactly as I predicted. Hopefully we learn from this. So maybe a guy like Daley gets moved sooner rather than waiting until the final day.

        1. “It’s pretty widely known that I was clamouring to trade Green at the draft or before free agency.”
          When you continue to beat a dead horse it stays dead.

          BTW, nice spelling of Clamoring. I guess you are English too.

          “……the risk of injury was greater than the expected rise in value.”
          Explain? I’d like to see some serious studies and statistics to validate your hypothesis….you know, like make an argument.

          “Hate me all you want.”
          Victimization. Sigh. At least I now know how you became this way.

          1. LOL at clamouring. Guess what pal, some Wings fans live in Canada where we add a “u” to numerous words. Humour. Colour. Favour. Clamour.

            If you are so contrite about your previous insensitive comments about my race, then why this subtle dig about being English? Stop making assumptions about people. Maybe I’m Egyptian and I made a spelling mistake? Grow up.

            As for some serious statistical studies…is this really the venue for that. I’m already told that I’m long-winded and go off on tangents, so yeah, I’m not going to post an 18-page thesis using regression analysis. How about we just keep it simple.

            You have an asset named Mike Green. He’s worth X during the offseason, when 30 other teams can work him into their cap, particularly when we can absorb a bunch of his salary.

            As teams sign other UFAs and fill out their rosters, suddenly the destinations for Green diminishes. So buyers disappear. Now he may be worth less than X.

            By waiting until the deadline, more teams can fit him in under the cap. So demand rises. But so does a supply of alternatives, like McDonagh, Karlsson, etc…

            So is his value really rising? Would the offers for a healthy Mike Green be that much more at the deadline as opposed to the summer? Or to what the Oilers offered early in the year? What would the difference be? A 2nd round pick in the summer, but a 2nd + 3rd at the deadline? Is that extra 3rd round pick worth it, knowing that any moment, you can be left with nothing? Even if the risk of an injury at the deadline was just 5 or 10%, is it worth trying to squeeze out some extra value? If you owned a stock worth $100 and you knew that you needed to sell it this year to buy a new car…would you wait until a week before hoping to sell it for $120, knowing that at any given moment this stock may report disastrous news and immediately become worth $0? Most people would just take the $100 now. Unless they had ridiculous expectations thinking this stock might be worth $250. So maybe that was Kenny’s problem. He was offered a 2nd or 3rd and refused, thinking that at the deadline Green would get a 1st, plus a 2nd, plus another top prospect. So he probably grossly overvalued him.

            Are you happy with the long-winded discussion? Sorry for not including any statistical models and regression analysis using time decay and option pricing. Can you also please stop making insensitive racial comments. Kewl.

        1. Why don’t you stay on topic? Notice George asked a question in his article. I’m the only one who answered that. The rest of you are making it about me. Go ahead Biv, the ball is in your court, answer George’s question…

          1. uh oh the comments police are here wee woo wee woooo. ironic enough, they are racist like the real police lol

          2. Just an honest attempt to invite you into a hockey discussion.

            But you continue to choose to act like a child and disrespect George’s efforts. Sad.

          3. “Just an honest attempt to invite you into a hockey discussion.”

            Do you mean, just like your most recent discussion about someone’s inability to add?

            Do you mean how you packed your bags when I honestly tried to have a discussion with you about race AND HOCKEY?

            Do you mean how you focused on my figure of speech rather then on the hockey content of my comment the other day?

            How about how you endlessly start topics with a comment victimizing you?

            Sigh. Hockey talk is probably only about 20% of what you actually do. Yet, you continue to get a little bit of support around here…..oh…where did those guys go?

  3. We’re still talking about an extremely conservative GM who probably won’t like what offers he gets for the veterans who might conceivably be moved (Glendening? Helm?)

    It seems possible one of Nyquist or AA could be traded.

    Holland’s usual MO with a player like Ouellet is to wait and wait then have to waive him because every other GM knows that’s coming without having to spend a pick.

    Booth is gone and Rasmussen, Svech and Frk will be in the mix.

    What changes on defense? Ouellet is replaced by Hicketts?

    I’m really not convinced there is much point in re-signing Green.
    Is he that important a tutor for the young offensive D who will be in Grand Rapids while he’s playing 20 mins a night in Detroit? Will he have a tiny bit of trade value in 2-3 years if he’s healthy at that deadline?

Comments are closed.