Daily Faceoff’s Mike Gould posted an article discussing four teams which would benefit from trading from disgruntled Bruins restricted free agent Jeremy Swayman, and Gould includes the Red Wings on his list:
Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings struggled enormously to dictate play in any meaningful way over large stretches of the 2023-24 season, relying instead on unsustainable shooting percentages to remain inexplicably in the hunt for the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference until the final days of the race. Their major collapse in March felt like a foregone conclusion while also serving as a strong indication that major changes needed to happen in the summer.
Instead, the Red Wings embarked upon a frustratingly inert offseason, making minute changes in an apparent bid to disrupt the status quo as little as possible. Amidst their decisions to re-sign Patrick Kane and replace David Perron with Vladimir Tarasenko, the Red Wings went out and signed 37-year-old goaltender Cam Talbot to a two-year deal; he’ll most likely battle for playing time in Detroit with Ville Husso, Alex Lyon, and 2021 first-round pick Sebastian Cossa.
None of those options is particularly inspiring, with the possible exception of Cossa if he continues to build on his encouraging 2023-24 campaign. Adding a goaltender of Swayman’s caliber would work wonders toward bolstering the Red Wings’ aspirations as legitimate contenders-to-be. As it stands, it’s difficult to take them seriously.
Continued; there’s a whole lot of stuff that I would like to disagree with here, from the Wings’ playoff ouster being expected when it was on a frickin’ tiebreaker to the team’s offseason being shitty, and in all honesty, it’s difficult to take any sort of trade for Swayman all that seriously because the Wings would have to make it work cap-wise and compensation-wise while negotiating with an Atlantic Division rival.
I don’t know how the hell it would happen. It sounds good for a “team that would benefit” from adding a star goaltender, but Swayman wants to exceed the “Larkin cap” in terms of monetary compensation, and the Wings would have to sell the farm to acquire him.
I never rule anything completely out, because following this league for the vast majority of my life has taught me that anything really can happen, but the percentages in terms of the Wings somehow managing to both trade for and sign Swayman while working salary cap and player compensation magic at the same time are astronomically small.
You may go ahead and call me crazy, but I actually believe that Swayman’s going to re-sign with Boston, hurt feelings and all.
