Red Wings 2018 Offseason Review Part 2

After the many trades of May, June, and July, the Wings were in a bit of a unique position: they had basically traded everything that wasn't nailed to the floor. This left a core roster with a few depth roles to fill and a bit of cap space to burn, but very few depth pieces to fill out the roster and the AHL squad. This perfect storm meant that the Wings would be very active in the UFA market, but would take a bit of an unorthodox approach. Rather than making offers to top UFAs like Dadonov and Vlasic that would require long term commitments, the Wings decided to offer basically their entire UFA budge to one player on a 1 year deal. Alex Edler was offered 8M for 1 year and the Wings were extremely happy to hear their offer was accepted.

GM Evans: "I've made 2 trades involving Alex Edler in the past and they were both disasters. In the first one I traded Manson and a pair of 3rd round picks for Edler and in the second one I traded Edler, retained, for a 3rd rounder pick. I'm happy to say this is one Edler deal where the Wings aren't getting fleeced. I expect him to be the perfect compliment to Erik Karlsson on our top pair."

The remaining 16 Red Wings UFAs were: 

LW/RW Michael Raffl 1.15x2
C Dom Moore 0.55x1
G Louis Domingue 1.25x1
D Chris Wideman 1.25x3
G Harri Sateri 0.86x3
G Kevin Boyle 0.9x4
D Oscar Fantenberg 1.35x1
C Vinni Lettieri 1.05x4
C/RW Mike Vecchione 1.05x3
RW Spencer Foo 0.925x3
RW Ryan Haggerty 0.65x1
D Radim Simek 0.95x2
LW CJ Suess 0.85x2
D Connor Clifton 0.65x3
D Zach Frye 0.65x1
LW Eric Robinson 0.65x1 (should be the 23 year old one, not the 28 year old)

With the exception of Moore and Raffl, all of these players are expected to report to Grand Rapids. In general these are players currently toiling away in the AHL with a decent shot at making the NHL in the near-ish future. Moore and Raffl are ideal bottom 6 wingers that should play valuable roles with the big club this season. A few of these other players have made the NHL out of training camp and should fight for spots with the Wings next season, when the cap crunch begins to hit.

Sounds like a busy offseason... surely GM Evans must be done by now, you must be thinking. Well nope, the Wing weren't content with just these 17 signings. In August the Wings made just 1 single trade but it's one that has the potential to send ripples throughout the league for many years to come. The Wings shipped out promising youngster Alex Kerfoot to the Devils in exchange for an unprotected 2020 1st.

"Clearly this move doesn't help the Wings win in 2018-19, which is our primary focus. However it does give our club a valuable asset that has enormous potential. We will be eagerly looking forward to that 2020 draft and hoping that pick ends up in the lottery. Lafreniere seems like a special player and there are sure to be other gems as well." 

With preseason rapidly approaching GM Evans swung a deal to send out Stephen Johns to the Sharks for a 2020 2nd round pick and a 2019 4th. GM Evans: "Johns was blocked by Pateryn and Engelland so we decided to save him from a 7th defenseman role in Detroit and cash in on some future assets."

In presumably their final move of the preseason, the Wings shipped out depth forwards Matt Peca and Noel Acciari for a 2019 3rd, and youngsters Alex Lintuniemi and Emil Petterson. GM Evans "Neither player was going to crack the 2018-19 Wings roster so our front office decided it was best to add another draft pick and a pair of younger AHLers with some upside. I originally hoped Peca would be a top 9 forward in the NHL this year, and that might still happen, but I'm a little more skeptical than I was in the summer."

After a summer of immense turnover the Wings roster looks like this:

Panarin-McDavid-Kucherov
E Kane-Couturier-Tarasenko
Kreider-Kesler-Jarnkrok
Eaves-Moore-Raffl
Scratches: C McKenzie

Edler-Karlsson
Fowler-Spurgeon
Pateryn-Engelland
Scratches: E Gustafsson

M Smith
M Murray