Former Red Wings coach Mike Babcock used to say “frustration is a waste of time,” and I’ve tried to believe that axiom.
That being said, all of us Red Wings partisans are more than a little frustrated by the fact that this summer’s free agent marketplace has become so very thin over the past couple of days.
Tomorrow, Brock Boeser and Nikolaj Ehlers are really the only offensive difference-makers left on the market, and they’ll be gobbled up quickly by contending teams; the same is probably true for defensemen Vladislav Gavrikov and Dmitri Orlov.
As such, the Red Wings are likely to end up adding players of the “supporting cast” variety, and the Detroit News’s Bob Wojnowski expresses frustration this evening, suggesting that Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman hasn’t been aggressive enough in utilizing trades to improve his team.
Sure enough, many of the elite free agents re-signed with their teams, with the notable exception of Toronto’s Mitch Marner headed to Las Vegas. Most teams have ample cap space, and few are inclined to sell off players. The champion Panthers shockingly managed to keep all their top free-agents: Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand. Life in the Florida sun pays well, especially with no state tax.
The Wings desperately need defensemen, and reportedly are making a run at L.A.’s Vladislav Gavrikov. Restricted free agents are more cumbersome and require compensation, but the Rangers are vulnerable. Defenseman K’Andre Miller and forward Will Cuylle are intriguing, and could pop free.
Hard to make trades, hard to sign free agents, hard to stay patient. Fans may be frustrated, but so is Yzerman. After the draft ended Saturday, I asked if he felt “stuck” in a tight market.
“What do you mean by stuck?” Yzerman said, before a long pause. “When talking to teams, everybody wants players, much like we want players. I’m looking to add to our team and use our future assets, and right now, teams are all looking to add players.”
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“I don’t feel stuck,” Yzerman said. “It’s just being patient. Maybe if we can’t do anything, we get better simply by Marco (Kasper) taking another step, or Simon (Edvinsson) takes another step, or Albert (Johansson) takes another step. All I can tell you is, we will keep trying. But the worst thing I can do is make a move out of desperation or panic that doesn’t make us any better.”
Such as last summer, when he settled for the aging Tarasenko, and now cut his losses. In previous off-seasons, he spent heavily on free agents J.T. Compher, Andrew Copp, Justin Holl and others who either under-performed or departed.
“Anybody can go look at the list of potential free-agents and see there aren’t many players you’d think will have an impact,” Yzerman said. “At some point, something will come along, whether it’s a free agent, or maybe someone spends a lot of money and now they’ve got to move somebody, so they’re looking for a draft pick or a prospect for that player.”
Wojnowski continues, comparing the respective states of the Red Wings and the Detroit Pistons, and just short of midnight, MLive’s Ansar Khan suggested that the Red Wings will have to look to make significant improvement not through the free agent marketplace, but instead, via a trade or two:
Continue reading With free agent frustration in mind, the Red Wings may need to turn to the trade market to improve