Summarizing the media’s reaction to the DeBrincat deal

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first broke news of the Alex DeBrincat deal just short of 7:30 PM, per Paul Kukla of Abel to Yzerman.

The deal is not an easy win: It’s Alex DeBrincat, who was signed to a 4-year, $31 million contract, for Dominik Kubalik, Ottawa-area native Donovan Sebrango, a conditional 1st round pick in 2024 and a 4th round pick.

The Senators’ website explains the situation as to how the 2024 1st round pick works:

The Ottawa Senators announced today that the team has acquired forward Dominik Kubalik, prospect defenceman Donovan Sebrango, a conditional 2024 first-round draft pick and Detroit’s 2024 fourth-round selection from the Red Wings in exchange for forward Alex DeBrincat.

The initial condition on the first-round pick is as follows — the Red Wings will have the option of sending their own 2024 first-round pick or Boston’s 2024 first-round pick (previously acquired on March 2, 2023) to Ottawa. However, if the Bruins’ 2024 first-round selection is an eventual top-10 pick (following the annual draft lottery), Boston will have the option of retaining the pick and transfering its 2025 unprotected first-round selection to Detroit. The Red Wings will then have the option of sending that draft pick or their own first-round pick in 2024 to the Senators to complete this trade.

From the Senators’ perspective, not all is lost, as the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch suggests…

Alex DeBrincat didn’t want to be with the Ottawa Senators so the club sent him packing Sunday night.

Unable to get the two-time 40-goal scored signed to a long-term deal, Senators general manager Pierre Dorion sent the 25-year-old DeBrincat to his hometown Detroit Red Wings and he immediately signed a four-year deal worth $7.85 million (all figures U.S.) per season.

After acquiring DeBrincat before last June’s draft from the Chicago Blackhawks, the Senators acquired winger Dominik Kubalik, prospect defenceman Donovan Sebrango, a conditional 2024 first-round draft pick and Detroit’s 2024 fourth-round selection from the Wings.

Kubalik, 27, is the centrepiece of the deal. He had 20 goals and 45 points in 81 games with the Wings last season and has one year left on a deal that will pay him $2.5 million next season. He could play a top-line role here.

“He’s a really good scorer and he wasn’t in a front-line role in Detroit,” a league executive said Sunday night.

Also:

TSN’s Darren Dreger said Monday Jackson was seeking a deal similar to Timo Meier’s eight-year, $70.2 million extension with the New Jersey Devils. That’s an average of $8.8 per season, but teams don’t believe he deserves that salary.

They value him closer to a deal in the $7.8 million range, and sources say none were willing to offer the eight-year deal that Jackson was demanding for DeBrincat. But DeBrincant wanted to be in Detroit so bad he took less term than he could have received from the Senators to move on.

Getting DeBrincat’s $9 million salary off the books for next season could open up the ability for the club to sign unrestricted free agent winger Vladimir Tarasenko to a short-term deal.

Amongst the Twitterverse reactions:

ESPN weighs in with the American national take…

Getting DeBrincat gives the Red Wings a 25-year-old winger who is already a two-time 40-goal scorer that has scored more than 50 points in each of his six NHL seasons. His lone year with the Senators finished with DeBrincat scoring 27 goals and 66 points. It was the fifth time and third consecutive season DeBrincat finished with more than 20 goals in a campaign.

His arrival is also the latest move in what has been an active offseason for the Red Wings. It started when they acquired forward Klim Kostin in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers that also saw them receive forward Kailer Yamamoto. They bought out Yamamoto — a decision that will only cost $443,334 in 2023-24 and another $533,334 in 2024-25 with the forward eventually signing with his home state Seattle Kraken.

Armed with salary-cap space, the Red Wings used their financial muscle to strengthen several parts of their roster in free agency. They signed defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Justin Holl while signing goaltender James Reimer. They also signed forwards such as Christian Fischer and Daniel Sprong before signing one of the bigger names in this free agency class in center J.T. Compher to a five-year pact worth $5.1 million annually.

CapFriendly projected that the Red Wings entered Sunday with $13.537 million in available space which made them a potential player for DeBrincat, who grew up in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hill, Michigan.

Now that the Red Wings have DeBrincat, he adds to a potential top-nine forward group that now has Dylan Larkin, David Perron, Andrew Copp, Robby Fabbri, Lucas Raymond, Compher, Kostin and Sprong with the idea Fischer could also challenge for a spot.

It leaves the Red Wings with $8.162 million in projected cap space should they seek to add more to a roster that is trying to snap a seven-year playoff drought — a streak that is tied for the longest in franchise history that went from 1970-71 through 1976-77. The Red Wings made the playoffs the following year only to then miss the postseason for the next for years.

Update: ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski offered his “trade grade“…

The Alex DeBrincat trade is a huge win for Detroit and an indication that the “Yzerplan” might lead the Red Wings back to prominence.

DeBrincat, who turns 26 in December, has two 41-goal seasons to his credit. He had 27 goals for Ottawa in a down year — his shooting percentage dropped from 15.2% to 10.3%. He’s a fast skater, a terrific generator of high-danger chances and a solid playmaker. He’s what this lineup lacked in a significant way. And now it has it.

He’s a clear upgrade over Kubalik, although not nearly the cap bargain for the output. Sebrango was expendable for the Red Wings given their depth on defense in their prospect pool. And obviously the Red Wings are fine giving up the first — it’s not like they’re ever winning the lottery anyway.

What really makes the grade is the contract. The $7.875 million AAV is equal to what Kevin Fiala got from the Los Angeles Kings on a seven-year term last summer. The cap was flat then. It’s flat now. It could be up to around $93 million by the summer of 2025, at which point this could end up looking like an incredible contract for the Red Wings.

Apparently, getting four years in his home state was enough for DeBrincat to forego hitting a torrid free agent market during his peak production seasons.

Maybe the Red Wings finally level up to playoff contender next season. Maybe it’s the season after that. The bottom line is that they have DeBrincat as part of that plan for the next four seasons, rather than having him walk around the arena with a temporary visitor’s pass. You know, like he did last season in Ottawa.

And TSN offers the Canadians’ take…

DeBrincat was acquired by the Senators in July of 2022 during the NHL Draft from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for three draft picks. The 5-foot-7 winger was drafted 39th overall by the Blackhawks in the 2016 NHL Draft and has 187 goals and 373 points in 450 career games split between the Blackhawks and Senators.

DeBrincat was an all-star in 2022 and represented the United States at the 2019 IIHF World Hockey Championship in Slovakia where he recorded seven goals and nine points in eight games en route to a bronze medal.

Kubalik, 27, played his first season with the Red Wings last season, recording 20 goals and 45 points in 81 games. The 6-foot-2 winger was drafted 191st overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2013 draft and has 82 goals and 161 points in 283 career games split between the Chicago Blackhawks and Red Wings.

He is on the second year of a two-year, $5 million deal he signed with the Red Wings in July of 2022.

Sebrango, 21, was drafted 63rd overall by the Red Wings in the 2020 draft. The 6-foot-1 defenceman split last season with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye.

In terms of the Red Wings’ press corps, here’s a survey of what the Wings’ beat writers, and a few national ones, have to say about the DeBrincat deal:

A. Detroit Red Wings: The Wings’ official website posted a press release;

B. MLive: Ansar Khan confirmed the details of the deal, and then Khan weighed in with analysis:

This appears to be a steal for the Red Wings. They get DeBrincat’s prime years at a team-friendly rate.

On top of that, it weakens an Atlantic Division rival who the Red Wings could be competing with for a playoff spot. The decision by Senators GM Pierre Dorian to trade DeBrincat within the division shows how desperate he was for a deal. Only a few teams had that cap space to make this move.

The Red Wings still have roughly $8 million in cap space after terminating Filip Zadina’s contract on Friday and moving Kubalik. Yzerman likely is done doing anything significant, but he still has some flexibility, which could come in handy around the trade deadline if the Red Wings are in the playoff chase and looking to buy.

The Red Wings ranked 24th in goals per game last season. After a flurry of free-agent signings that included J.T. Compher (career-high 52 points), Daniel Sprong (career-high 20 goals) and Shayne Gostisbehere (offensive defenseman), Yzerman said he hoped the Red Wings collectively could score more.

DeBrincat, 25, was a restricted free agent who declared he wasn’t going to re-sign with the Senators, forcing their hand. Detroit was the preferred destination for the Farmington Hills native.

Despite his size (5-8, 178) and defensive deficiencies (minus-31 last season), he’s a proven scorer. He tallied 27 goals last season with Ottawa and has 187 goals (along with 186 assists) in 450 games over six seasons.

C. Detroit Free Press: The Free Press’s Helene St. James also confirmed the details of the deal, and then offered her analysis:

A veteran in the last year of his contract, a mid-range prospect, an extra first-round pick and a reasonable contract extension?

That’s a nice bit of work to finish up on a Sunday night by Steve Yzerman to make the Detroit Red Wings look more like a playoff team.

Less than a week after he capped two busy days of free agency by saying he still wanted to add offensive firepower, Yzerman completed a deal for 40-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat. The Wings got the Farmington Hills native for Dominik Kubalik, Donovan Sebrango, and a conditional first-round pick and fourth-round pick in 2024.

The Wings locked up DeBrincat for four years with an annual average value of $7,875,000.

…

It seems a lopsided trade favoring the Wings, especially considering the Senators have to convince their fans they got a good deal in a transaction with a team that is a direct competitor within the Atlantic Division for a playoff spot.

DeBrincat is coming off a subpar year, but for him, that means 27 goals and 66 points in 82 games. The season before, in 2021-22, he posted his second career 41-goal season with the Chicago Blackhawks. He adds the scoring power the Wings have needed, and suddenly makes their whole lineup look more likely to end what has become a seven-year stretch of missing the playoffs. Now the Wings can assemble their top two lines from options including DeBrincat, Larkin, Raymond, David Perron, Robby Fabbri, just-signed J.T. Compher and Daniel Sprong, and Andrew Copp. The bottom six will be better for having a deeper top six.

D. Detroit News: Nolan Bianchi confirmed the deal’s details, and noted what folks were saying online:

In return for DeBrincat, the Red Wings sent winger Dominik Kubalik, defense prospect Donovan Sebrango, a conditional 2024 first-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round pick. According to a release, Detroit will have the right to send either their own 2024 first-round pick or Boston’s 2024 first-rounder, which was acquired in the Tyler Bertuzzi trade.

It’s an efficient string of transactions from Red Wings general manger Steve Yzerman, whose tenacity at the negotiating table with both DeBrincat and Senators general manager Pierre Dorion was nationally reported to be grueling — and the leading factor for the deal taking so long. Some had speculated it would be completed near the NHL Draft in late June.

Yzerman was able to acquire DeBrincat without giving up a blue-chip prospect or young roster player while still keeping the better of Detroit’s two 2024 first-rounders. Still, some could argue it’s a respectable return for a GM whose hands were tied — a league-wide lack of cap space, plus DeBrincat’s lack of a contract for 2023-24 and his reported desire to play for his hometown team, all favored Yzerman’s negotiations with Dorion.

DeBrincat, who turns 26 in December, is a two-time 41-goal scorer, most recently in the 2021-22 season, his final with the Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago drafted DeBrincat in the second round, 39th overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. In five seasons with Chicago, DeBrincat collected 160 goals and 147 assists (307 points) in 368 games played.

E. Detroit Hockey Now: Bob Duff weighed in as to the substance of the deal, and its ramifications:

There’d been off and on speculation of a DeBrincat trade to Detroit for a few months. An NHL source told Detroit Hockey Now late last week that the Red Wings were still in on DeBrincat. However, at the time the source was listing DeBrincat’s contract demands as the main factor that was keeping the deal from coming to fruition.

The Senators had given Jeff Jackson, DeBrincat’s agent, permission to talk to other NHL teams. DeBrincat, through his agent, was reportedly telling teams he wants a contract comparable to the one the New Jersey Devils recently presented to forward Timo Meier. That was an eight-year deal with an AAV of $8.775 million.

According to the source, the DeBrincat camp was seeking a pact in the length of 7-8 years with an AAV in the $9 million range. The Red Wings were able to get him to agree to a pact that was below both ranges.

Last season, DeBrincat accounted for 27 goals and 66 points in 82 games for Ottawa. Though this was considered a down season for DeBrincat, it would’ve been good enough to be placing him second on the Red Wings in both goals and points.

F. The Athletic: Max Bultman and Ottawa’s Ian Mendes weighed in with a combined take…

What does this deal mean for Detroit? Simply, it means they just addressed their single biggest need this offseason, adding a proven goal scorer to their top six. Giving up Kubalík does subtract some goal-scoring too in the short-term, but DeBrincat is a tier above as a multi-time 40-goal scorer who provides the upper-lineup punch they’ve lacked for the past several seasons. The Red Wings haven’t had a 40-goal scorer since Marián Hossa in 2008-09. — Bultman

Does this make the Red Wings a playoff team? That remains to be seen, as well-received this move will be in Detroit.

The Red Wings certainly got deeper via free agency, with additions like J.T. Compher and Daniel Sprong, and they’ve now added a potential leading goal scorer as well. But Detroit was still only an 80-point team last season, and the cutoff to get into the playoffs was 92. That’s about six wins — and between DeBrincat, Compher and the potential for internal improvement, that range now looks entirely possible. But the year before, the playoff cutoff was 100 points, which would probably be too steep a climb in one year.

Regardless, Detroit is now much more formidable and should certainly challenge for the postseason — especially considering they also took DeBrincat away from fellow divisional up-and-comer Ottawa. — Bultman

And Shayna Goldman and Eric Duhatschek gave the trade a set of grades and analysis. Here’s some of what Duhatschek has to say:

Eric Duhatschek: The question you were probably asking as Detroit’s Yzerplan entered Year 5, and the Red Wings tried to move from rebuilding team to playoff contender: Where is the elite help coming from?

It wasn’t through the free agency period. Sure, the Red Wings added three quality forwards in and around free agency — JT Compher, Klim Kostin, Daniel Sprong and Christian Fischer — but none of three smacked difference maker.

Part of the answer came Sunday night, when Detroit completed the trade with the Senators to bring in DeBrincat. This, by the way, was always the likeliest outcome.

DeBrincat is a local kid, from Farmington Hills, Mich. The destination makes a ton of sense. Maybe people wondered about the timing. Maybe people wanted to see it happen sooner. But the one thing you’ll always find with Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman is that he operates on his own timetable, not anyone else’s.

And, oh by the way, the Red Wings don’t open the season until Oct. 12 against the New Jersey Devils, so the urgency you might have seen on social media wasn’t felt by any of the principals involved in the action.

Let’s focus on Detroit, to start, because if you review last year’s scoring totals, you’ll see Dylan Larkin, at the top of the Wings with 79 points in 80 games; next would be David Perron at 56 points, and then no one else above 45 (Lucas Raymond and Kubalik tied at that number).That’s a crying need for an elite scorer.

G. Sean Shapiro: Shapiro weighed in regarding the trade on both his Substack…

Steve Yzerman can take a victory lap after this one, it’s a big win. But the thing I keep coming back to with this deal centers on DeBrincat and the Senators.

Why would the Senators make this deal and why would DeBrincat sign that type extension?

Ottawa had filed for arbitration with DeBrincat and were protected from an offer sheet, if they hadn’t worked out a long-term deal he’d play in Ottawa this season as a pending UFA and would have been one of the biggest prizes at the trade deadline.

By simply completing the arbitration case and forcing DeBrincat to play it out, the Senators likely could have netted a larger return in late January or early February of the upcoming season.

Sure it might have been awkward, but in general, Ottawa gave up on potential assets that would have at least been equal to the package Detroit gave today in early July.

For DeBrincat, I understand the appeal of returning to play in his home state, but I don’t understand the four-year deal and the economics of passing up on capitalizing on the cap finally rising in two seasons.

And on EP Rinkside:

DeBrincat was an RFA that Ottawa had filed for arbitration with. He was acquired by Ottawa at the 2023 NHL Draft, and in one year with the Senators had 66 points in 82 games. 

Because of a high qualifying offer, the Senators had filed for arbitration, which also protected Ottawa from a potential offer sheet, but neither side seemed comfortable with a long-term marriage. 

For Detroit, the deal came down to term. The Red Wings and GM Steve Yzerman were interested in DeBrincat from the onset, but a potential eight-year term was a turn-off for Detroit. Getting the player on a shorter term and at market value, and for a soft return can only be considered a win for Detroit in this deal. 

H. The Hockey News: The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton weighed in as well:

In the short term, that pick has the potential to make DeBrincat and Bertuzzi, who signed a one-year deal in Toronto (the kind he never wanted in Detroit), a narrative-rich individual match-up within the Atlantic Division.

Detroit has been closely linked to DeBrincat throughout the summer, but the draft and then the start of free agency came and went without a move.  DeBrincat loomed over general manager Steve Yzerman’s post-free agency presser though his name was never uttered.

“It’s probably still not where we’d like it to be,” said Yzerman last week of his team’s goalscoring prospects for the coming season, even if he’d just stressed the importance of internal improvement.  The chase for DeBrincat continued.

By the time the deal went official, you could make out the framework by which either GM can argue that a benefit came from working slowly.  

Senators GM Pierre Dorion got a first round pick and, in Kubalik, a player who can fill some version of the role DeBrincat was supposed to fit when he arrived last summer.

With Yzerman, there were two pressure points to manage: the return for Ottawa and the extension for DeBrincat.  With the Sens, Yzerman gave away a roster player whom off-season acquisitions DeBrincat and Daniel Sprong left redundant and a future first rounder that doesn’t require Yzerman to part with any of Detroit’s own picks if he doesn’t want to.  

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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, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!