Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman addressed the team’s decision to essentially give away Jake Walman and a second-round pick in a trade with the San Jose Sharks to simply shed salary (in order to keep and/or bid for unrestricted free agents) and open up a spot on the blueline, presumably for Simon Edvinsson…
And Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of Yzerman’s remarks:
“It’s really difficult to move money right now,” Yzerman said. “And I’ve tried. Honestly I’ve tried. We needed to move at least one contract to do some of the things we gotta do. Unfortunately, that (second-round pick) was the price to do it.”
Also paying the price in this myriad of transactions was defense prospect Andrew Gibson. The Red Wings would ship the 2023 second-round pick to the Nashville Predators. In return, they got that 53rd overall pick that went to the Sharks, as well as Finnish forward prospect Jesse Kiiskinen.
Again, given his druthers, this was not a move that Yzerman was looking to prioritize.
“I didn’t really want to trade Andrew Gibson but we were able to recoup a prospect and get a pick that we used to move out a contract,” Yzerman said. “We were able to acquire in a trade with Nashville a similar same-level prospect, at least on our board, for Andrew Gibson in Jesse Kiiskinen.”
I’m going to be honest here: I was a bit pissed off about the Walman giveaway, but I’m just as baffled by the team’s decision to move Gibson, who the Red Wings signed to an entry-level contract earlier this spring.
Gibson was the type of rugged, right-shooting defenseman that the Wings want to add to their prospect pool, and trading him for Kiiskinen just doesn’t quite add up for me.
Losing a free spirit like Walman sucks for sure, as he was getting into a groove before injuries derailed his 2023-2024 campaign; I wish him all the best in San Jose.
