The Detroit Red Wings are in the midst of a rebuild. Whether or not they’re willing to admit that fact or continue to try and push for a playoff spot this season, it is clear that the team is not set up for Stanley Cup contention as presently constructed. They do have plenty of good young talent in the NHL and on the way, but there just aren’t enough elite players to really push them into the upper echelon of the Atlantic Division, let alone the Eastern Conference. With that in mind, the Red Wings may very well see this season’s trade deadline as an opportunity to gather more assets for the future and continue building towards an eventual competitive window. One of the players who is already drawing interest from around the league is goaltender Jimmy Howard, who is having another excellent season and is in the final year of his current contract.
Recently, Darren Dreger of TSN reported that the St. Louis Blues had shown interest in the Detroit netminder given the struggles of both Jake Allen and Chad Johnson and today Frank Seravalli of TSN writes that the Pittsburgh Penguins also have interest. Seravalli notes that the Penguins have a first -round pick to “dangle” in front of the Red Wings, something that the Blues do not have after giving it up for Ryan O’Reilly this offseason. Howard comes with a $5.3MM cap hit this season but wouldn’t represent a long-term investment for any acquiring team.
Interestingly, in the same piece Seravalli also lists Penguins goaltender Matt Murray as a potential trade candidate due to his growing injury concerns and struggles this season. If the Penguins were to be pursuing someone like Howard, it would make some sense that they’d need to send one of their young netminders elsewhere. Pittsburgh has Casey DeSmith and Tristan Jarry manning the crease while Murray deals with his latest injury, a tandem that certainly doesn’t have the experience someone like Howard has.
From these reports it doesn’t seem like anything is close, but the fact that the Penguins would show interest in a veteran goaltender is something to keep an eye on. GM Jim Rutherford isn’t shy with in-season moves to improve his club, and Pittsburgh still believes they can compete this year. With the return of Sidney Crosby recently, the Penguins are now 10-8-5 on the season and just three points out of a Metropolitan Division playoff spot.
The Red Wings meanwhile now have Jonathan Bernier under contract through 2020-21 and little reason to not trade Howard before the deadline, unless they plan on re-signing the veteran netminder. The two sides have definitely discussed a multi-year extension, but if Detroit is offered a big enough package in return it will be hard to turn down.
Anyone who trades a first round pick for Jimmy Howard is desperate
Exactly. I don’t know why Pittsburgh would be interested in dealing a 1st-rounder for a 34-year-old mediocre netminder with a recent history of injury.
Not mediocre
Only teams I can see that have the cap space and assets to make this work is the Flyers or the Blues. If Detroit is dead-set on getting a 1st rounder in return they’re going to have to retain half of Howard’s salary and include another serviceable piece like Glendening.
I’m pretty sure the blues have no cap space, unless they trade someone.
The Blues only have about 400k in cap space.
The Blues have the highest payroll in the NHL this year, thus, the lowest amount of cap space available.
That’s why I said the Wings would have to retain half of Howard’s remaining salary. Obviously a guy like Johnson would be going back to Detroit in a deal with the Blues and I’m sure Detroit would gladly take on Bortuzzo if they were getting a first rounder. A deal between the two is doable I just didn’t think I’d need to spell it out for readers here…
Also, although the Blues have the highest payroll they do not have the least amount of cap space. That would be the Red Wings that have the least space to play with. St. Louis tank 28th when it comes to actual cap space.
Allen has been a lot better lately. 10ga in last 6 games (1.6 per game) and that’s with a 3-goal effort by Nashville. The rest of the games is 1g, 1g, 1g, 2g,2g
Those are quality numbers – the problem isn’t just Allen (who is certainly streaky), its the team not scoring goals. They have had so many 1goal games, or zero goal games. Once in a while they throw down 4 or 6 goals, but the other games they don’t show up. Where is Terrasenko 5on5? 3 goals? What about the D-corps that was supposed to be top 5. Nope.
Change needed to be made behind the bench. However, promoting someone internally can mean the same gameplan, same voice, and same style. They need to get a new coach (Alain Vigneault? Quennville?)
Lets in 4 against Detroit last night. Typical
The last thing the old man in Pittsburgh should be doing is forking over a first round pick for another rental in Howard. His trades have made an average farm system look terrible right now. Stupid to deal for Howard and give up that. Give them Jack Johnson and I have no problem.
Yeah those 2 cups weren’t worth the farm system. Just think of the teams that don’t have a system and haven’t won a cup.
No reason to do it this year … at all for a garbage rental tender.
Trade him!
I don’t think the Wings can get a first round pick unless it’s a very late 1st round pick. With that said, they got a lot for a few average players before so it’s not impossible. I think a 2nd & 4th rounder would work for me!