Bleacher Report’s Sara Civian suggests that 7 teams have “urgent needs” to address before the 2025 trade deadline on March 7th, and she believes that the Red Wings might want to consider adding defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks, though Jones is only in his 3rd year of an 8-year contract with a $9.5 million cap hit (and a full no-movement clause):
Detroit Red Wings: Look, the aforementioned Jones to Detroit deal could work if the Blackhawks retain an absolute boatload of cap space, but it could handcuff Detroit in an obviously overcommital way that would bleed into the future. Regardless, the Ducks did them a solid earlier this week as they took veteran goalie Ville Husso’s $4.75 million AAV off the books in return for future considerations.
The Wings will be working with a projected ~$14 million in cap space at the deadline, and they’ve got more than enough high draft picks for suitors to choose from. You could see them going the defense route, given how weak the depth is in that position despite some top heavy star power. You could also see them deciding to really go for it with a veteran goaltender.
Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon are both above .900 on the season, and improved as the team did after the terrible start. But things are looking questionable again at the wrong time, and you wonder if “future considerations” could mean, like, next week if the Red Wings decided to trade for John Gibson?
Regardless, they’ve got to find a way to turn things around on the defensive side of the ice for the present and the future.
Continued; I’m not sold on Gibson as a long-term solution in goal, either. The 31-year-old makes $6.4 million for two more seasons, and he’s had some injury hiccups over the past two seasons.
At this point, unless the Red Wings can make a meaningful addition at forward and/or on defense to shore up their long-term positional depth, I don’t believe that the Wings need to sacrifice assets for rentals, nor potential contractual millstones.
I totally agree George. Hell no to either of them. Gibson is not much of an upgrade in net and Seth Jones is not that great (besides the horrible contract) and has always been overrated.
Radko Gudas is the guy I wanted this past summer and the type of mean physical d-man this team has needed for a while. Only a year left on his contract, I could see Verbeek and Yzerman work something out.
BTW, I miss you on the Flying Octopus podcast. Hopefully you’ll be back on there again.