Red Wings Offseason Review 2022 - Part 2

After the draft, GM Evans shifted focus to fine-tuning the roster and getting under the cap. The defense was looking deep but with the re-signing of Ryan O’Reilly and the acquisition of Mika Zibanejad, the forward group was just too crowded. McDavid, Meier, Lindholm, Hertl, Hartman, O’Reilly, Zibanejad, Rust, and Svechnikov were all vying for top six minutes and that just wasn’t feasible. GM Evans made the decision that two forwards would need to be subtracted from the mix and hit the phones to see which players made the most sense to move. Fans assumed that Rust, a pending UFA, would be a likely trade candidate, as well as the recently re-upped Ryan Hartman and Ryan O’Reilly.

Before long, the Red Wings agreed to a blockbuster 3-way trade that sent Mika Zibanejad and Alexander Suzdalev to Arizona for top prospects Luke Hughes and Nolan Foote. LA acted as a middle-man in the deal and received Suzdalev in exchange for retaining 50% of Zibanejad’s contract to help Arizona’s cap situation. The Red Wings fans were stunned to see the jewel of the team’s offseason traded before playing a single game, but the Red Wings clearly coveted Hughes and Foote.

After much deliberation between a field of strong offers for Ryan O’Reilly, he was sent to Anaheim along with Bryan Rust, and Blake Comeau in exchange for Justin Faulk, prospects Morgan Barron and Jonatan Berggren, plus ANA 2023 1^st and ANA 2023 4^th round picks. Anaheim retained 50% of Faulk’s remaining salary, 1 year at 6.25M.

After the pair of roster-shaking trades GM Evans was reached for comment: “I didn’t plan on trading Mika at all, but we got a really strong offer that added two top prospects to our system. Luke Hughes projects as a top pairing defenseman, with a shot at being a star. This trade is probably a big L for us if he doesn’t hit that ceiling, and a solid W if he does. Foote is a likely 3^rd line scorer with that shot and size, with upside for even more.”

“O’Reilly made a lot of sense to trade. Elias Lindholm, Hertl and Hartman can all fill that 2C spot. Adding an unprotected 1^st in this draft is huge, Berggren looks like an NHLer for sure and has a good shot at being a top six winger, Barron can probably fill a bottom six spot next year or the following one, and the Rust/Faulk swap gives us a third top defenseman behind Burns and Heiskanen. We had a strong alternative offer that would have added a trio of young defensemen, but this felt like a better fit.”

By this point UFA period was underway and GM Evans decided that he had subtracted one too many top forwards. The team also had an excess of #4/5 type defensemen in Cernak, Lindgren, Hakanpaa, Carrier, and Fabbro. With Burns, Heiskanen, and now Faulk at the top of the depth chart, only two or three of those players would be needed and it looked like it would be possible to add a 6^th defenseman in UFA for cheap.

After a thorough search, the Red Wings decided Joe Pavelski was the perfect fit to round out the top six. Pavelski was acquired from Colorado for Ryan Lindgren, prospect Sean Behrens and SJS 2023 3^rd round pick. Colorado retained 50% of Pavelski’s remaining salary, 1 year at 7M.

In UFA, the league tried out a new format where teams were only able to submit 5 bids per week. This was an exciting change from the Wings’ perspective given that the team was mostly targeting younger players and depth. The Red Wings were able to add many of their top targets in Jakob Silfverberg, Alexei Toropchenko, Andrew Poturalski, Travis Boyd, Nick Perbix, and Matthew Murray. A number of other players like Carl Hagelin, Tomas Nosek, Mike Hardman, Gabriel Carlsson, Brian Boyle, Hunter Shepard, Kyle Keyser, Brandon Scanlin, Brian Halonen, Colin Swoyer, Bobby Trivigno, and Kevin Rooney were also signed.

The Red Wings have had enormous success in the past with finding diamonds in the rough in UFA – since 2018 Radim Simek, Conor Clifton, Eric Robinson, Noel Acciari, Pavel Francouz, Matt Roy, Michael Bunting, Jacob Middleton, Ross Colton, Jani Hakanpaa, and Tanner Jeannot have all been signed before breaking out. However, most of these players were traded before realizing their potential.

GM Evans: “I’m pleased with what we did in UFA this year. We added Travis Boyd, a few veteran forwards, and a few young farm players. I kinda wish we had managed to add Evan Rodrigues or another defenseman as well, and I waited too long to offer on Simon Ryfors, but I think we had a solid B+ UFA period. Boyd is a solid bottom six scorer, Toropchenko is a hulking grinder already playing NHL games, the young guns Perbix, Hardman, Murray, Keyser, Shepard, Trivigno, Halonen, and Scanlin have varying levels of NHL potential, and the veteran group of Silfverberg, Boyle, Nosek, Rooney, and Hagelin are competing for the bottom three or four roster spots up front. That’s a lot depth added. Hopefully this time if we unearth a breakout gem, I won’t blow it by trading him before the breakout!”

To wrap up the offseason, GM Evans made another pair of trades focused on defense. First, Garin Bjorklund and 2023 BOS 4^th round pick were traded to Tampa for defensive defenseman Dysin Mayo, and later that day Erik Cernak, Austin Strand, and 2023 NJD 5^th were traded to San Jose for Jagger Firkus, 2023 SJS 2^nd and Leon Gawanke.

GM Evans: “This pair of deals gives us some cap flexibility and gives us another top prospect in Firkus and another potentially high draft pick, as SJ is rebuilding. Mayo can slide right into a bottom pair spot and Gawanke gives us another defense prospect with a good shot at playing in the NHL.”

There was a lot of roster churn this offseason with a number of significant players added and subtracted from the team. The net additions and subtractions are summarized below:

In: Burns, Faulk, Jarry, L Hughes, F Gaudreau, Boyd, M Barron, Toropchenko, Poturalski, Hardman, N Foote, Mayo, N Perbix, Firkus, Berggren, Havelid, Lutz, B Meyers, Rashevsky, Dumais, Perevalov, A Ingram, Brennan, Gawanke, Laroque, Cruz Lucius, Sjoberg, Nosek, Rooney, Silfverberg, Boyle, Hagelin, Halonen, Trivigno, Swoyer, Scanlin, Keyser, Shepard, and Matt Murray (…the other Matt Murray).

Out: Chabot, O’Reilly, Cernak, Rust, R Lindgren, Behrens, Comeau, Luff, S Malone, Lundkvist, Beckman, Madden, Wisdom, Coronato, Sturm, L Carlsson, Bjorklund, Strand, Suzdalev, Luff, Sawchenko, plus UFA rights to Wheeler, E Kane, Palat, and Carter.

At his preseason conference GM Evans laid out his view of the team’s offseason work: “Overall, I would rate our offseason an A-. We added a good amount of everything, without any total home runs or major losses. We maximized value from our pending UFA’s and managed to add an extra 1^st out of it. We created cap flexibility, got a few core players like Lindholm, Jarry, and Heiskanen locked up to long term deals, and we managed to avoid overpaying Hartman coming off a career year while still retaining him. I’m not sure we did a great job with Hart though, a 1 year deal has the potential to bite us.”

“We added some elite players in Jarry, Burns, Faulk, and Pavelski, plus solid complementary players in Freddy Gaudreau, Mayo, and Boyd to fill key needs for this season. We added some interesting veteran depth pieces in Silfverberg, Rooney, Nosek, Hagelin, and Boyle to round out the roster and compete for bottom six spots.”

We stacked our prospect pool; We added an elite prospect in Luke Hughes, quite a few quality prospects in Nolan Foote, Berggren, Firkus, Havelid, Lutz, Meyers, Rashevsky, and Dumais, and several depth prospects. We further invested in the future by prioritizing young depth players like Morgan Barron, Gawanke, Perbix, Toropchenko, Murray, Keyser, Shepard, and Hardman in UFA and trades.  We even managed to sign Andrew Poturalski, a player that continues to fascinate our scouts. I still think he has breakout potential.

All in all, I think we’re a stronger team this season than last. Our pro roster is well-positioned for another playoff run, the farm team is stocked with talented young players like Cozens, Byfield, Kakko, Moser, and Fabbro, and the prospect pool is loaded. We have at least seven prospects with a shot at being impact players – Edvinsson, Hughes, Wolf, and Zellweger have star potential - and several others with a good shot at playing. The future is bright in Hockeytown, and the present looks pretty damn good too. ”

-Detroit Free Press
November 26^th, 2022