Trade deadline grades and/or a lament about the Red Wings GM’s timeline

This morning, The Athletic’s Max Bultman gives the Red Wings a passing-grade’s “C” for the team’s slightly puzzling trade deadline move(s)…

Detroit Red Wings: C

Craig Smith is a veteran who brings some scoring and needed hard elements to the Red Wings’ bottom six, likely on the fourth line. At 35, he’s not likely a long-term piece, but for 2025 he’s a nice addition and someone who should help Detroit, which hasn’t gotten enough offense down the lineup this season. Petr Mrázek is the more confusing piece of this deal. The Red Wings’ goaltending has struggled of late, to be sure, but Mrázek is having one of the worst statistical seasons of his career, with an .890 save percentage and minus-9.52 goals saved above expected through 33 games. His environment is key context, as he’s been playing behind the lottery-bound Blackhawks, but Mrázek’s trajectory hasn’t been inspiring: his save percentage has been below .900 in three of the last four seasons. Maybe he turns that around in Detroit, where he previously played from 2013-2018, but with another year at $4.25 million on his contract, it’s a risky bet on him turning things around. Detroit gets credit for bringing in Smith, who is the kind of deadline addition playoff teams typically seek, but the Mrázek portion is a giant question mark. A goaltending boost would certainly help the Red Wings, but counting on that from Mrázek is an iffy bet. — Max Bultman

And the Free Press’ Carlos Monarrez also issued a grade–a “D”–for the Red Wings’ GM. Monarrez suggests that Steve Yzerman “did nothing” to help the Wings make the playoffs, and, as his questions during yesterday’s press conference indicated, Monarrez is testy this morning:

At best, the move gave Yzerman some backup-goalie options for next season, with Alex Lyon on an expiring contract and Sebastian Cossa still in the minors. Smith, who’s on an expiring contract, was probably just a nominal depth throw-in, along with his AARP card and a shawl to keep him warm on his bus ride to Detroit.

I don’t know whether to respect Yzerman’s obstinacy when it comes to building a sustainable team that’s set up for long-term success or to call for his job because of the lack of urgency he’s shown for over half a decade.

The problem with Yzerman’s rebuild is that no one will consider it over until the Wings make the playoffs. And if he doesn’t do anything to help them make the playoffs, then he’s creating a vicious cycle.

I can’t blame Yzerman for moving on from Veleno because he’d clearly seen enough, but it still couldn’t feel to good for Wings fans to see the reactions. The Athletic gave Chicago an A-plus and the Wings a B-minus while labeling it “nifty work” by GM Kyle Davidson. The Chicago Sun-Times called it a “sneaky trade.”

Of course, much of that is based on the unknown potential of Veleno, a young, former first-round pick with another year left on his contract. Looks good on paper. But if you like paper that much, go check his stats. But even if he doesn’t flourish in Chicago, it’s still largely seen as the Blackhawks dumping two has-beens on the Wings.

What’s especially strange about Yzerman’s unwillingness to help his own players, and the very coach he shrewdly installed to save the season, is that it feels like he has thwarted his own work.

Instead of going all in and at least making a reasonable move to add a center to make up for Andrew Copp’s loss and some defensive depth, Yzerman clutched his pearls and retreated to his fainting couch at the thought of giving up a cherished first-round pick. You know, like the pick that turned into Veleno.

Continued; boo hoo. Yzerman didn’t draft Veleno–Ken Holland dd–and I am loathe to use this word, but Monarrez’s suggestion that the GM might get a “pink slip” if the team doesn’t make the playoffs this year is…

Short-sighted at best, and plain old silly at worst.

That’s not how any of this works. Roster-building, as Yzerman himself suggested, does involve accumulating draft picks and prospects, and while there is no doubt whatsoever that the GM could have chosen to utilize some of the organization’s depth to help the here and now…

And we all know that Yzerman isn’t going to make that kind of move until he feels that he can sustain a playoff run–and Yzerman was very blunt in stating that the team was not offered anything but free agent-to-be rentals and the kinds of players who would require “a 1st round pick plus [a top prospect] plus [a roster player],” which just isn’t the kind of move he feels would serve the organization’s push to return to regular playoff runs.

I’m not supporting or criticizing that line of thinking per se–it is what it is, and I am getting as incredibly impatient about this 10-to-12-year rebuild that’s in year 8 as you are–but we are where we are at, and Red Wings owners Marian and Christopher Ilitch are not going to fire Yzerman until or unless he wishes to leave the position himself.

That’s the bottom line, as is the fact that Yzerman truly believes that he’s doing the best he can by the organization. And he’s not going to dump top prospects for a rental because he “might not be here in 3 or 4 years, either.”

This year, he made a strong fourth-line addition in Smith and a bit of a head-shaker in Petr Mrazek (with a year remaining on his contract), but that’s what happened, and the team’s going to deal with it, and at this point, the move can’t be undone, so we have to deal with it, too.