Two NHL teams, among many others, have lost more hockey games than they’ve won of late. Those two teams are the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings. Those two teams, also, can consider themselves cooked in the race for clinching a postseason berth to keep playing hockey in late April and May.
The Penguins literally waved the white flag ahead of the March 8 trade deadline when they decided to cut ties and part ways with franchise icon Jake Guentzel, sending him to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Red Wings metaphorically waved it by standing pat and chasing no trades ahead of the deadline to bolster a team that, just three weeks later, has revealed all of its flaws and has proved not to be good enough to be considered a postseason team.
The future of one of those two franchises might improve for good soon if both organizations can agree to the deal proposed by analyst Adam Gretz of Bleacher Report in which Pittsburgh sends five-time All-Star and three-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson to Detroit.
“The Detroit Red Wings are in danger of letting a playoff slip away and potentially extending their postseason drought to eight consecutive seasons,” Gretz wrote. “Karlsson might not be a traditional shutdown defender, but the Red Wings need more good players on defense.”
According to Gretz, the Red Wings already “have the offense to win. But they don’t have the defense, both in terms of quality or quantity.”
Not only would Karlsson provide Detroit with an elite-level defender, but he would also have an overall positive influence on the Red Wings on the offensive transition and the final third of the rink while eating minutes of ice time for breakfast.
“[The Red Wings] also need somebody who can play some big minutes and not put all of the pressure on (defender Moritz) Seider to carry the load,” Gretz wrote. “And more players who can make an impact.”
Karlsson has been as good as historically advertised this season while playing at 33. He’s appeared in all 71 games scoring 8 goals and providing 38 assists for 46 points. The Penguins have outscored opponents by 2 goals with him on the ice, and he also ranks fourth in Point Shares (7.0) among his teammates, per Hockey-Reference.
Erik Karlsson Will Have to Waive His No-Trade Clause
Entering next summer, per PuckPedia, the Red Wings are expected to have a little over $28 million in cap room to land free agents starting on July 1. They only have 14 players under contract for next season removing the upcoming free agents currently on their roster.
Although Detroit doesn’t have all of its own draft picks available, they have at least one pick per round from 2024 through 2026, including two bonus seventh-round picks in the next two NHL Drafts. Having such a war chest of assets will be crucial in building a package to trade in exchange for a player of Karlsson’s level.
Trading for Karlsson won’t be easy, mind you, and that also has to do with the No-Trade Clause (NTC) that is baked into his current contract with the Penguins. The NTC allows Karlsson to veto any trade he doesn’t like, potentially putting an end to the possibility of Detroit landing him even before the franchise can entertain it.
That being said, as things stand, it looks like Detroit would give Karlsson a better shot at making a few postseason runs before calling it a career and hanging his skates than Pittsburgh would, even assuming Sidney Crosby re-signs with the franchise next summer.
“There could be a match,” Gretz wrote. There is a definite need from Detroit’s perspective, and the salary-cap situation could work.”
Detroit Red Wings Must Revamp Roster Next Offseason
Then, there is GM Steve Yzerman. Yzerman, as documented by Heavy, is going to be under heavy scrutiny and with his back against the wall after (most probably) missing the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season since he was hired by the Red Wings.
“There is going to be big pressure for general manager Steve Yzerman to put a playoff team on the ice,” Gretz noted, “especially if they continue their recent slump and miss again this season.”
The Red Wings are coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the fellow postseason-chasers Washington Capitals on Tuesday, March 26, which could very well mean the end of the road is here for Detroit. As of today, the Capitals (81 points) lead the race for the second wild-card berth by two points over the Red Wings (79) with a game in hand.
With only 10 games left and the Capitals putting on a late-season run, it’s going to be really hard for Detroit to catch Washington in time to snatch the second WC berth from them. Perhaps they’d do better starting to plot the master plan to land Karlsson rather than wasting time in trying to compete for a place in the playoffs that will, most probably, not come this season.
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Red Wings Named Potential Trade Suitor for Penguins’ $92 Million Superstar