Wings Retool on the Fly Part 1

The 2017-18 has been pretty up and down for the Wings. It seems like just a few days ago that the boys from Hockeytown were pushing the Panthers for 2nd place in the wide-open Daigle division and riding a 9 game winning streak. What goes up must come down, apparently, and going into last night's trade deadline the Wings sat 3 points outside of 3rd in the division. That being said, let's explore some of the moves made this season that got the Wings where they are.

Throughout the season, GM Evans and the Wings have made a number of acquisitions geared at getting this team back into the playoffs, but first let's revisit the biggest move of the 2017-18 season. In mid-November GM Evans decided the team needed a kickstart and sent top youngster Mitch Marner along with Cale Makar and the Wings 2018 1st round pick to the Rangers for superstar Nikita Kucherov (2.2M retained), a 2018 2nd, and prospect Deven Sideroff. "It was tough to trade Mitch in any deal, but I felt at the time that Kucherov was the best winger in the world. Since the trade he's only solidified that claim." This move was significant for a number of reasons, but chiefly among them: it meant that the Wings were all-in on 2017-18!

The move was quickly followed by a salary cup dump that sent Blake Comeau to Edmonton. Next up the Wings traded the enigmatic Petr Mrazek, recently acquired veteran Byron Froese, and a 3rd for Nikita Zadorov. Veteran winger Jussi Jokinen was swapped for the Shark's Kyle Quincey, putting an end to his disappointing tenure with the Wings. In another roster-crunch move, Scottie Upshall was sent to the Oilers. A short while later the Wings sent the highly touted Jimmy Vesey along with prospect Joseph Gamberdella to the Sens for hulking young winger Joel Armia and a 3rd round pick. 

By this point the Wings had kicked into full buy mode, but had a logjam of defense and wanted to add some depth up the middle. Struggling veteran Francois Beauchemin was shipped off to the Jets along with a 5th for PK specialist Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. Next, in a bit of an against-the-grain move, the recently acquired Nikita Zadorov plus veteran Paul Martin, prospect Mitchell Stephens, and a 4th were shipped off to divisional rival Buffalo in exchange for their 2019 1st, Tampa's 2018 2nd, and their 2019 3rd plus veteran centre Jay McClement.

This move was quickly followed with another aggressive addition. One of the big breakout stars of 2017-18, Josh Bailey, was acquired from Pittsburgh for a quad of youngsters: Markus Nutivaara, CJ Smith, Daniel O'Regan, and Markus Hannikainen. In a smaller move Nic Dowd was swapped for veteran defender Mark Stuart, to offset some of the defensemen exiting Detroit. The Wings, not content with their depth scoring, set out to add a scoring winger and locked on to the Predator's Matthieu Perreault. Perreault was acquired for a 2018 2nd and goalie prospect Linus Soderstrom.

In another against-the-grain move. the Red Wings decided to ship out underachieving star Mark Giordano. Giordano never quite clicked with the Wings and seemed to have a profoundly negative impact on the powerplay. Giordano was sent to the Oilers along with a 2019 4th for veteran defender Christian Ehrhoff, a pair of young roster players in Calle Jarnkrok and Stephen Johns, and a 5th round pick. In order to offset the loss of Giordano, the Wings sent veteran Brian Gionta to the Capitals for former Detroit fan-favorite Alexei Emelin.

Next up, the Wings made a move that seemed insignificant on the surface but would have a pretty large impact on the coming trade deadline. The Wings shipped off 5 minor leaguers, including the NHL's leading face-puncher Michael Haley, to the Blues for nothing at all. This move opened up the roster spots for the Wings to sign free agents Vincent Hinostroza, Andy Welinski, Vojtech Mozik, Noel Acciari, and Dean Kukan. 

In yet another under-the radar move GM Evans added promising younf defender Erik Cernak plus a 2019 5th and a conditional 2020 5th for prospect Jordan Sambrook and a 2019 3rd. Cernak was traded away by the Wings around draft day this past summer and he was sorely missed by the organization. 

All of the tinkering with the roster finally seemed to be paying off for the Red Wings, and by early February the Wings were shooting up the standings on the back of a 9 game winning streak. Since the Wings had already moved their 2018 1st round pick GM Evans say no reason to hold back from maing 1 last major addition. GM Evans called up the rival Montreal Canadiens, who had seemingly fallen back from the playoff race, and inquired about Ryan Getzlaf. In the end, the Wings decided to send recently acquired sparkplug Matthieu Perreault, frustrating-but-promising young defender Mike Reilly, and top prospects Michael McLeod and Josh Mahura to Montreal for Ryan Getzlaf (3.1M retained), and solid defender Jordie Benn.

On its surface this move seemed poised to catapult the surging Wings into 2nd in the division... however reality was not so kind. Fastforward to March 15th and Perreault has ignited the Montreal Canadiens with a startling 12 points in 12 games since the trade, Mike Reilly has begun to show he belongs in the NHL, and the Red Wings have fallen out of a playoff position.

In what GM Evans expected to be the final trades of the season, the Wings acquired another veteran defender in Nicklas Grossman in exchange for a 4th round pick, and shipped Jay McClement off to Edmonton for youngster Tyler Graovac. 

Stay tuned for part 2 of this 2 part series, where we will dive into the Red Wings' moves on deadline day.