Author: George Malik

There’s a fair amount of criticism of Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s lateral trade made at the 2025 trade deadline (in adding 35-year-old forward Craig Smith and 33-year-old goaltender Petr Mrazek from Chicago, in exchange for Joe Veleno) being levied today…

But there’s a lot of crap out there about the so-called “Yzerplan’s” presumptive failure given the Red Wings management group’s continued risk-averse rebuilding plan, too.

I’ll readily admit that, as a Wings partisan, I was underwhelmed with and slightly confused by what the Red Wings did at the trade deadline.

With the team needing a second-line center due to Andrew Copp’s season-ending injury and a depth defender to attempt to fill the hole left by Jeff Petry’s season-ending surgery, the Wings addressed neither one of their needs, which struck me as a little weird.

Of course, during yesterday’s press conference, much to the annoyance of the Free Press’s Carlos Monarrez, Yzerman explained to the press that he was only presented with deadline rental deals for players who wouldn’t be part of the Wings’ long-term future, and/or trade proposals that would require “a 1st round pick plus plus” (as in plus a top prospect and meaningful roster player) to acquire a meaningful contributor.

Per the Red Wings Alumni Association on Twitter:

It's game day! The Red Wings Alumni take on the Michigan Warriors in a special charity game. Join us for a great cause and some exciting hockey! #LGRW #detroitredwingsalumni pic.twitter.com/DVZr7LOkKe

— Official Detroit Red Wings Alumni (@DRWAlumni) March 8, 2025

MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s remarks regarding the future of top goaltending prospect Sebastian Cossa, who may end up spending one more season in Grand Rapids.

Why? The Griffins’ starter watched Detroit add Petr Mrazek to the goaltending mix, and both Mrazek and Cam Talbot have contracts which extend into next season, which means that Cossa would have to “steal a job” to earn a regular goaltending spot in Detroit:

“I’d rather take a conservative approach and if the season ends so strongly for Sebastian in GR and he has a good off-season and a good preseason and simply forces his way in, that would be a great thing,” general manager Steve Yzerman said.

“But right now, looking at the (goalie) market for next year, we felt not only does Petr help us short-term for the remainder of this year he gives us some solidity going into next year. And if we want to do something different, I don’t think what we’ve done precludes us from doing that. If we think there’s something that is a real upgrade that makes sense, whether in a trade or whatnot, we’ll do that. But let’s see how the season itself plays out.”

Cossa, 22, is 17-10-5 with a 2.36 goals-against average and .914 save percentage with the Griffins. He’s appeared in one NHL game – not by design. Injuries to Talbot and Lyon prompted the Red Wings to recall Cossa on Dec. 2 to back-up Ville Husso. One week later, Cossa replaced Husso at the start of the second period and stopped 12-of-14 shots through the final two periods and overtime in a 6-5 shootout victory at Buffalo.

“For the most part, I think Sebastian’s had a really good year.” Yzerman said. “He continues to improve. Before I kind of fully assess him or make my determination on where he’s at in his career, we’ve got a stretch run here and hopefully a good playoff run and I’ll kind of make my final evaluation when the season is over.”

Continued

Both Expressen’s Mikael Ljungberg and Aftonbladet’s Benjamin Hanafi report that Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka set a SHL record for the most goals scored by an under-20 defenseman as he scored his 12th goal of the season in Skelleftea AIK’s 2-1 win over Brynas IF.

As you might expect, Red Wings Prospects on Twitter has a clip of the goal…

Axel Sandin Pellikka(1st round’23)
GOAL🚨! He now has the record for:
•Most Goals for a U20 Defenseman in a season
• All time goal leader for a U20 Defenseman in a junior career#LGRW #skeaik pic.twitter.com/2h3SFpe5Bv

— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) March 8, 2025

And the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton has more:

After the win, Sandin-Pellikka will be gearing up for a deep SHL playoff run, but for Red Wings fans, it’s impossible not to look forward to his North American future.  As noted by Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman in his post-trade deadline remarks, it’s possible Sandin-Pellikka could come to the United States for the end of the season once his SHL campaign wraps up.

More than likely, that would mean joining the Grand Rapids Griffins for the end of their season, though, depending on how the Red Wings playoff push progresses, perhaps he could also make an NHL cameo.

The more significant question is probably where Sandin-Pellikka will begin his ’25-26 campaign, and once again, the likeliest answer to that question is Grand Rapids.  Sure, Sandin-Pellikka could play his way into a role with the Red Wings out of camp, but Yzerman has tended to exercise patience with his drafted prospects (especially so with defensemen), preferring to see them thrive with the Griffins before advancing to an NHL role.

From what Yzerman said yesterday, it sounded like ASP would get the “Henrik Zetterberg treatment”–meaning that the Wings might bring Sandin Pellikka to Detroit down the stretch to see the NHL team make a playoff push instead of simply assigning him to Grand Rapids, just as Henrik Zetterberg was brought over from Timra IK in the spring of 2002 to watch the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup run.

There are still some concerns about ASP’s size and strength as he’s 5’11” and 185 pounds, as well as his ability to defend (stop me if you’ve Simon Edvinsson heard this before), so I wouldn’t be surprised if he spends the next season in Grand Rapids, but anything can happen if he surprises over the course of training camp or the AHL’s regular season. The Wings won’t hesitate to afford him the opportunity to “steal a spot” on the NHL roster and supplant an NHL veteran.

Per the Detroit News’s Tony Paul, Governor Gretchen Whitmer paid tribute to Detroit sports fan and superb human being Andy Isaac, who passed away recently after an extremely lengthy battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma:

Today, in honor of Andy Isaac (@WorldofIsaac), it's officially Faturday in the state of Michigan.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has proclaimed: pic.twitter.com/LWUqVLgQ1F

— Tony Paul | Detroit News (@TonyPaul1984) March 8, 2025

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:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Red Wings prospect and Moncton Wildcats goaltender Rudy Guimond was named the Canadian Hockey League’s Goaltender of the Month for February:

During February, Guimond went 7-0 with a 1.26 goals-against average, .956 save percentage and two shutouts. His GAA and save percentage were both tops among CHL puckstoppers for the month.

Over his seven starts, the 19-year-old from Montreal, Que., allowed one goal or fewer on five occasions. Guimond stop all 29 shots he faced against the Cape Breton Eagles on February 1. He later registered a 20-save shutout against those same Cape Breton Eagles on February 21. The 6-foot-4, 175-pound netminder also made a career-high 42 saves in a big 4-1 victory over the Drummondville Voltigeurs on the last day of the month. In total, Guimond registered four performances with 25-plus saves in February.

Continued

The Free Press’s Helene St. James checks in with her usual morning column the day after the Detroit Red Wings dropped a 5-2 decision to the Washington Capitals:

Desperately searching for victory and wellness, the Detroit Red Wings turn their hopes to a couple trade deadline acquisitions.

Pinning a turnaround from what has become a five-game losing streak on a 33-year-old goaltender who had dropped down the depth chart on his former team and a 35-year-old forward is only part of it, though. For the Wings (30-27-6) to give themselves a chance at getting back inside the playoff picture after being stuck on 66 points for more than 10 days now, it’ll take accepting just how much effort that takes.

“It’s hard at this time of year,” coach Todd McLellan said after Friday’s 5-2 loss at the Washington Capitals. “Our guys are learning that. I’m not sure everybody quite understands that. But clearly we have a lot to work on and a lot to learn.”

The Detroit Red Wings lost their 5th straight game in the form of a 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Friday night, collapsing despite taking a 2-0 lead to start the 1st period.

This is a difficult time of year–between the underwhelming trade deadline to the Red Wings’ post-Four Nations Face-Off struggles–and the Red Wings have 19 games left as they prepare to battle the hated Ottawa Senators on Monday.

So this was a weird one. Detroit took the lead only 45 seconds in, when Dylan Larkin clanked a puck off Logan Thompson’s helmet, and just under seven minutes later, Moritz Seider’s power play slapper yielded a 2-0 lead…

But things fell apart in the 3rd period, with Detroit both leading 2-1 and on the power play, as the Wings gave up the first of two short-handed goals against, as Aliaksei Protas deked his way around the aforementioned Seider and chipped a puck over Cam Talbot’s glove, tying the game at 2…

And it got worse from there.

More worryingly, both Dylan Larkin (who was able to return from his injury) and Simon Edvinsson (who left halfway through the 3rd period) got “banged up” by Capitals hits, and Detroit’s going to have 5 games in 9 nights after their two-day weekend, so the Wings will hope that Larkin and Edvinsson are okay to go for Monday’s it’s-all-but-a-must-win game against Ottawa.

Our friends from Washington, who the Red Wings will visit again on April 18th, and, who are in 2nd place in the NHL standings, were able to laugh off their slow start, as they told the Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson:

The Detroit Red Wings made one trade today, sending Joe Veleno to Chicago for Petr Mrazek and Craig Smith. Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman addressed the media in a 40-minute press conference ahead of Detroit’s 5th straight loss, a 5-2 decision dropped to the Washington Capitals on Friday night.

MLive’s Ansar Khan summarized today’s trade thusly…

It’s also a puzzling move because Mrazek, 33, has one year remaining on his contract at $4.25 million and doesn’t appear to be an upgrade over Cam Talbot or Alex Lyon.

Mrazek, in his third season with the Blackhawks, is 10-19-2 with a 3.46 goals-against average and .890 save percentage. A Red Wings’ fifth-round draft pick in 2010 (141st overall), he spent parts of six seasons in Detroit from 2012-2018 before being traded to Philadelphia for a third-round pick.

Talbot is under contract for another season at $2.5 million. Lyon will be an unrestricted free agent after the season. Top goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa is waiver-exempt for one more season, so he could spend another year with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Smith, 35, is a bottom-six forward who will upgrade their fourth-line center spot with his size (6-1, 203) and forechecking ability. The longtime Nashville Predator and 14-year veteran has nine goals and seven assists in 40 games. He is in the final year of his contract ($1 million) and will be an unrestricted free agent after the season.

And Khan took note of Yzerman’s comments regarding not getting into the rental market as he chose to take a conservative route when it comes to trades…

“The type of deal that was available is the pending unrestricted free agents and we didn’t even get into that,” Yzerman said. “Where we’re at … to get into that rental thing, giving up our first-round picks and our top prospects, that’s not the thing to do right now.

“I want to make the playoffs, and I want to win a Stanley cup as much as anybody, and I take full responsibility for where we’re at today. I’m going to make the best decisions that I can for us, short-term and long-term.”

The Red Wings have missed the playoffs eight years in a row and Yzerman said he understands fans are frustrated and impatient.

“We did what we thought we could to help give us a better chance at the playoffs,” Yzerman said. “Is it earth-shattering? No. But the only way we could do something earth-shattering is to give up first-round picks and our best young players and prospects. And I think everybody would agree that just to try and hope for us to get in (the playoffs) isn’t the time to do that. We’re prepared to use our picks and prospects, but it’s got to be for players that we really like that are going to be a part of this thing for future years and beyond.”

While 97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burchfield noted Yzerman’s remarks regarding fan frustration as the rebuild percolates slowly…