The Fourth Period reiterates Wings trade talk

You may take the following rumors from The Fourth Period for what you will:

The Detroit Red Wings could have an active month as the club is expected to be active in the trade market and may be willing to trade the sixth-overall selection in the NHL Draft.

With seven draft picks in the first-three rounds of the draft, the Wings could utilize some of those picks in trades for immediate help on the roster.

Red Wings GM Ken Holland entertained trade calls for forwards Gustav Nyquist and Luke Glendening during the season and could revisit those discussions later this month. But the possibility of trading the No.6 pick in the draft could change things for the franchise.

“I’m open to possibly move,” Holland told Craig Custance of The Athletic, as quoted by Sportsnet. “I’ve started to talk to some teams about a lot. As you work your way toward Dallas at the draft, draft movement possibilities, I think at this stage in the game, everybody is kicking tires as to what might be out there.”

The Wings have roughly $17.5 million in available salary cap space, to date, but with the cap increasing, they’ll have more room to play with. A number of pending restricted free agents are due to major deals, including Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou, but the team will have plenty of room to tinker with the rest of its roster.

Detroit needs a backup goalie, a stronger defensive corps – re-signing pending unrestricted free agent Mike Green may be a possibility – and adding extra fire power up front is a priority.

I honestly don’t expect the Red Wings to move up or down in the draft as they’ve got a good choice of defensemen to pick in Bouchard, Hughes, Dobson or Boqvist.

I wouldn’t be totally surprised if Nyquist is dealt, but the problem with these draft-related trade rumors is that they start at the combine, foment and ferment on their own, and reach a fever pitch by the draft, and so few of them reach fruition…

As for the possibility of adding up front, or on defense, I’d be quite happy if the Wings trod lightly regarding Mike Green and just let re-signing Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, Frk, Larkin and Mantha remain the team’s priorities up front.

All of that being said, TFP is pretty well-connected…so we shall see what transpires later this month.

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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.

23 thoughts on “The Fourth Period reiterates Wings trade talk”

  1. I really hope we don’t get out of the top 6. Unless Carolina sends over Noah Hanafin, maybe….still, it’s a lot to give up and you don’t get it back.

  2. Sign Vanek and demote Bertuzzi.

    Sign Green to block all of our young d_men.

    Then trade Vanek and Green for 1sts.

  3. I’m pretty surprised that Glenny hasn’t already been traded to Toronto to be reunited with Babs. Wouldn’t mind getting that trade done with already…

    1. Yeah I would do that. Garret Sparks is who I would ask for. Leafs have Anderson as their #1. Then McElhinney, Pickard, Sparks in the system. No room for all of them. Sparks is a guy who could possibly develop into a legit #1 goalie. Asking price for a young goalie has in the past been a couple of 2nd round picks. So maybe Glendening and one of our 2nd rounders gets it done? Or how about we keep our 2nd and take Matt Martin as a cap dump to give the Leafs more flexibility to sign all of their UFA/RFAs.

      Glendening + 3rd…for Sparks + Martin. They can have Ouellet if they want as well.

      1. McElhinney = 35 and a UFA next season. His contract (one year left) can easily be burried in the A.
        Pickard is an RFA and get’s resigned as the backup.
        Sparks continues to develop to either replace Pickard to take Anderson’s job. Toronto has no other decent goalie in the pipeline. They can’t give up Sparks. Not for a (less than a) 3rd round pick (Glendening is actually worth more then Martin so Sparks for less then a 3rd). And, Dubas is not a bad GM (yet).

        The only thing that makes sense out of your trade is picking up another overpaid 4th line player – Martin. To which I wager you would crucify Holland for.

        1. Martin is a cap dump. Wasn’t even comparing him to Glendening. Just saying if you take Martin off their hands then you can downgrade the draft pick.

          Even if McElhinney gets buried, they still have 3 young goalies for 2 jobs. They want Glendening. They need a 4C. And instead of surrendering picks they can use Sparks to add him, while also shedding Martin. Seems plausible to me. But agree to disagree right!

          1. To be clear…i think Martin sucks. Glendening is way more valuable. I’m only suggesting Martin to lessen the price for Sparks. Teams like us can afford to take on a bad short-term deal.

          2. “Martin is a cap dump.”
            Yep, that’s understood.
            “Wasn’t even comparing him to Glendening.”
            You have to as part of the trade to understand the full value of what is given.

            “they still have 3 young goalies for 2 jobs.”
            They do? I count two. Sparks is the #1 guy for the Marlies. Kaskisuo secure the starting position for the Wolves. Woll and Scott don’t appear to be ready and can go back to their respective college and Jrs teams if needed.

            “They need a 4C.”
            But, didn’t you say somewhere else that these kinds of guys are available on waivers? So why waste a good prospect and a pick for Glendening?

          3. “But, didn’t you say somewhere else that these kinds of guys are available on waivers? So why waste a good prospect and a pick for Glendening?”

            !!!!

    2. Yeah, but Dubas is a great GM. He wouldn’t make the mistakes that KH makes.

      We need to get comfortable with the idea of Super Luke centering the 4th line for eternity.

  4. Luke makes 675k and had 11 goals and he is a good face off center. Not sure what the wings really gain by trading him. Just because he is tradable is not a good reason to trade him, IMHO.

    1. Glendening makes $1.8M. And Toronto’s coach loves him so may be willing to overpay to acquire him. Otherwise, yeah, 4th line centres aren’t worth that much. Exploit a rival that may be willing to overpay.

        1. I’ve already explained this. You can find random 4th line guys on waivers or as cheap UFA’s. But sometimes teams are willing to overpay for a particular guy, especially if they feel close to a Cup. Bab’s love affair with Glendening presents a situation that you can exploit. Not that complicated is it?

          1. Still not sure why you cannot or will not use the ignore button on FS.

            F him. Talk hockey. He is not worth the aggravation.

  5. Even at 1.8 mill he is still a decent bargain. The next two seasons his salary goes down. He plays with tons of heart wins more than half his faceoffs and can pot ten goals a season and can be used in almost any circumstance. Please list the four line players that will be available for this season that can replace all that at a reduced cost.

    1. D-dog, I’m not saying Glendening is a bad player. Not saying his contract is awful. He’s a useful mentor to have around.

      But he’s also one of the very few guys on the roster with positive trade value. So when rebuilding, I don’t think we have the luxury to keep him around, and then of course extend him in 2 years (ie like we did with Abby and Helm). Sometimes you need to extract value along the way. If someone overpays for Glendening (as Babs might) then you have to bite. See how Turgeon performs as a 4C. Or slide Helm down there. Or Nosek, oh wait, forget that idea.

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