The Detroit Red Wings are out of the playoff race for this season but they are still a team to watch over the next week. Several potential trade pieces reside on their team including Nick Jensen who continues to draw interest from around the league. Brian Lawton of NHL Network tweets that interest is increasing of late, with the Red Wings asking for a second-round pick or more in exchange for the defenseman. Teams are apparently only offering a third-round selection so far.
Jensen, 28, is experiencing a breakout season for the Red Wings and happens to be the kind of talented right-handed defenseman that almost everyone is looking for at the deadline. After two seasons of mostly third-pairing work, Jensen is logging nearly 21 minutes a night for Detroit and has 15 points in 59 games. Those numbers come with positive possession statistics and a supremely inexpensive $812.5K full season cap hit, making him a desirable asset for any playoff run.
The Red Wings already own ten selections in the upcoming draft, and could potentially add several more with trades of Jensen, Gustav Nyquist and Luke Glendening among others. The team is already well on their way to a rebuild with a young core surrounding franchise player Dylan Larkin, and could advance it even more with a strong trade deadline. Last year GM Ken Holland secured four draft picks in trade by sending out Tomas Tatar and Petr Mrazek, and several more at the 2017 deadline. If that trend continues, expect Detroit to be more than willing to sell off their expiring assets to continue stocking their prospect cupboards in the coming days.
This is Holland’s swan song so he might want to go out in a flurry of trades & put the future on solid footing on his way to retirement. The Yzerman years will soon be here!
holland is a front runner for the new seattle gm gig. he doesnt want to screw this up. expect stevie y to come back next year as a senior advisor and then take over as holland bolts west.