Earlier this morning, MLive’s Ansar Khan addressed Andreas Athanasiou’s trade value as part of a Monday mailbag feature. This afternoon, the Free Press’s Helene St. James addresses the same topic:
It would not be surprising to see the Wings trade Athanasiou. If they get a good offer – at least a second-round pick or a good prospect, preferably a defenseman – he could be flipped to help the rebuild.
As talented as Athanasiou is, he shouldn’t be as quiet as he is at times – last season he went for stretches of 10 and 15 games without a goal. That came even as he averaged 15:19 minutes per game, up from 13:28 in 2016-17. His average power play time increased to 1:44 from 1:13, yet he contributed only four points during man advantages.
Once restricted free agents Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha are re-signed, the Wings will have 12 forwards towards the 2018-19 roster: Athanasiou, Henrik Zetterberg, Frans Nielsen, Gustav Nyquist, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Thomas Vanek, Luke Glendening, Tyler Bertuzzi and Martin Frk. Michael Rasmussen, the team’s first-round pick from 2017, is expected to grab a job, and June’s draft added the possibility there’ll be another fresh face in Filip Zadina. Other forward prospects expected to challenge for minutes include 2015 first-round pick Evgeny Svechnikov, and David Pope, a shooter dating to the 2013 draft.
That makes for a crowded field, though injuries crop up during training camp/exhibition season. Svechnikov and Pope may end up starting the season in Grand Rapids, but if they perform well, they should be called up.
HSJ should stick to giving us fluff and not try to visualize trades. Her suggestion of AA for a 2nd is really dumb. Last year she proposed trading Howard for Anti Neimi. Neimi was having trouble stopping beach balls at the time. A grade A prospect or a mid 1st round choice makes much more sense. Tats got us a 1,2 & 3rd rounder. A second rounder has approximately a 35% chance of even making the NHL, let alone being a 20 goal scorer.
Yea, I was thinking the same thing when I read the article. Trading AA for a draft pick(s) would have to include a 1st rounder.
Trading Anthanasiou would simply be revenge for last year’s nonsense. While it would make Holland, the senile and mini-Mike feel good, who really cares about that?
Well, she always had a hatred for Tatar and Nyquist.. Perhaps AA is taking Tatar’s spot in her eyes.