The Athletic’s Max Bultman filed a late-afternoon article discussing the ramifications of the Jeff Petry trade for the Red Wings’ blueline and their top defensive prospects:
[The trade] also comes with some interesting questions about potential fallout elsewhere on the blue line, which suddenly looks very crowded. After the projected top pair of Moritz Seider and Jake Walman, the Red Wings now may have to sit one of Petry, Gostisbehere, Ben Chiarot, Justin Holl and Olli Määttä, all of whom except Gostisbehere are under contract for at least the next two seasons, and all but Petry (whose cap hit is $2.34 million, after Montreal retained salary) will cost at least $3 million.
In many ways, that crowdedness can be a good thing — injuries are inevitable in the NHL, and in recent years, the Red Wings have had to resort to asking depth defenders to carry a real load. Last season, Detroit’s Nos. 6-8 defensemen (Lindstrom, Jordan Oesterle and Robert Hagg) combined for 126 games. Now, when all are healthy, the Red Wings would project to scratch a player who is better than all three of them — and that’s without knowing who, exactly, shapes up as the odd man out on a given night. There should be real competition.
Improving the blue line was the top priority for head coach Derek Lalonde when he arrived last season, and remains as such going forward, with Lalonde recently saying that even though Detroit improved defensively last season, it “still isn’t good enough.”
“I’ve been fortunate enough prior to coming here, being around some winning within this league, and it’s still about keeping it out of the net,” Lalonde said.
Clearly, Yzerman agrees, as the Red Wings now look much deeper (and more veteran) on defense. Petry had a 54 percent expected goals share last season in Pittsburgh, and while much of that was a result of what he brings offensively, he has a history of strong defensive impacts too.
And beyond that, finding more offense is still a major need for Detroit. Petry, for his part, has tallied 40 or more points in four of his last six seasons, in addition to being on pace to do so last season in the 61 games he played. That’s the good: the Red Wings got better, deeper, and more experienced, and did so without giving up much.
Bultman continues (paywall)
