Wings Add a Pair of Aces

GM Evans and the Wings ended 2019 by retooling their forward group, sending out superstar Nikita Kucherov for Elias Lindholm, Teuvo Teravainen, Jakub Zboril, and Tyler Steenbergen. The move seems to have to fixed the team's chemistry issues and the Wings have stayed in contention for the top place in the very competitive Daigle division. 

With the forward group stabilized GM Evans turned his attention to the defense. Veterans Burns and Doughty were pulling their weight but not excelling, Erik Gustafsson was invisible, and Erik Cernak couldn't seem to stay out of the penalty box. The Wings kicked off 2020 with a small move, adding bottom pair defender Brett Kulak for Ryan Kuffner, one of the Wings many free agent signings. A week later Kulak was packing his bags again, headed to Philadelphia along with fellow bottom pair defender Korbinian Holzer and Joe Snively for a 2020 4th and 2021 5th. This move cleared out a couple of quality defensemen playing too low down the depth chart, and made room for Wings to add an upgrade.

The very next day the Wings did just that and added pending UFA Danny Dekeyser for the struggling Ryan Kesler, youngster Tyler Steenbergen, and a pair of summer 2019 signings, Trevor Carrick and Patrick Newell. Dekeyser has found instant chemistry with Brent Burns and has been nothing short of fantastic since coming to the Wings, with 7 points and a +17 in 26 games. 

For the next month the Wings stood pat, and weathered a gloomy 10 game stretch followed by a 6 game winning streak. When a new GM took over the long-neglected Minnesota Wild in early February, the Wings saw an opportunity to acquire a special talent just entering his prime: Miro Heiskanen. After some back and forth, Josh Morrissey, Erik Cernak, and Pavel Francouz were shipped off to the Wild in exchange for Heiskanen, and a 2020 4th. 

GM Evans: "Erik is a player I've always been a big fan of, and although this is my 3rd time trading him away I've always believed in his talent. I had identified Pavel as a target for the Wings when he first signed an NHL deal back in the summer of 2018. He was dominant in Europe so I'm not surprised to see him breaking out this year as a solid NHL goalie. Josh was in the middle of a great season for us, and it's always tough to trade a top pair defenseman in his prime. However, it becomes a lot easier to swallow losing three talented players like these when you're able to add a special talent like Miro Heiskanen in return. At age 20 Miro has already established himself as a 25 minute a night player capable of playing in all situation and driving play. I couldn't be more excited about his future. I really think he has Norris trophy potential and I look forward to watching him suit up for the Wings for many years."

In the 2nd of three straight deals, the Wings sent Jakub Zboril, part of the Nikita Kucherov deal, to the Wild for a 2nd round pick. A few days later the Wings and Wild completed the natural hat trick and the Red Wings agreed to send Erik Gustafsson and Wiley Sherman to Minnesota for youngster Alexander Alexeyev and a 2020 3rd. The Wings had been shopping Gustafsson for a few months, as the talented offensive defenseman just wasn't putting up points this MRFHL season.

After focusing on defense for a couple months, GM Evans saw an opportunity to add a quality forward for reasonable price and pounced. Brandon Dubinsky was acquired from the Panthers in exchange for AHL star Michael Bunting, one of the few 2019 UFA signings remaining on the Wings. Dubinsky is a clear upgrade to the recently departed Ryan Kesler, although he is a pending UFA this summer.

The acquisition of Dubinsky gave the Wings a complete balanced roster of 12 forwards and 6 defense, but this was not to last. The very next day the Wings managed to reach another blockbuster with the Wild. As if acquiring Heiskanen wasn't enough already, GM Evans swung for the fences again and added Thomas Chabot and a 2020 5th for Sam Reinhart, a 2020 2nd, Vlad Kolyachonok, and Lias Andersson. A hefty price, but a very impressive return as well. 

GM Evans held a press conference after the Chabot trade to discuss some of the recent moves:
"Chabot gives us another stud defenseman capable of playing big minutes in a variety of roles. He's a special player; guys like Thomas Chabot don't appear on the trade block very often so when I saw the opportunity to add him to the Wings, I pressed hard. Sam Reinhart is a sturdy young player playing on 1st line minutes and just beginning to reach his ceiling, Vlad Kolyachonok is a player our scouts rave about, and Lias Andersson still has a lot of potential to be an effective top 9 NHLer, so we paid quite a high price to acquire Thomas. This just shows how much faith the Red Wings organization has in him. He's a legit number 1 defenseman capabale of putting up a consistent 50-60 points, and playing big minutes. I didn't expect to be able to acquire a young number 1 defenseman this season, let alone two of them! These two trades change the look of this team going forward in a big way."

After all the moves the Wings continue to contend for the top spot in the Daigle division. The team currently sits in 2nd with a 36-22-5 record, 2 points back of the Senators with 2 games in hand. It's expected to be a quiet deadline in Detroit, with the team looking to improve the bottom of the roster rather than adding a big piece, but you can never count out GM Evans from making a splash at the deadline.

-Detroit Free Press
 

Soderberg-McDavid-Lindholm
Hertl-Couturier-Teravainen
Kreider-Dubinsky-Coleman
Chiasson-Fehr

Chabot-Doughty
Dekeyser-Burns
Pulock-Pionk
Heiskanen

Lehner
Hart

Prospects:
Kakko, RW, 9.0B
Cozens, C/RW, 9.0C
Bemstrom, RW, 7.5A
Alexeyev, D, 8.0C
Thrun, D, 7.5C+
M Samuelsson, D, 7.5C