Utah has acquired defenseman Olli Määttä from the Red Wings in a late-night trade, the team announced. They’re sending a 2025 third-round pick, previously acquired from the Rangers, to Detroit to complete the deal.
It’s no surprise to see the first-year franchise swing a deal for a defenseman. They’ll be without a pair of top-four defenders, Sean Durzi and John Marino, for most of the season after they both underwent surgeries in the past couple of weeks. Durzi could miss the rest of the regular season after having a procedure to repair his right shoulder, while Marino will likely be out until the 4 Nations Face-Off in February while recovering from lower back surgery.
Initial reports suggested Utah would likely lean on internal solutions to fill the void. They recalled 2022 first-round pick Maveric Lamoureux from AHL Tucson and have gotten solid hockey out of 24-year-old Michael Kesselring, who’s now averaging over 20 minutes per night and has five points and a team-leading +5 rating through 10 games. But losses have kept piling up for the Utahns, who remain at .500 with a 4-4-2 record after yesterday’s third-period collapse to the Sharks, which resulted in a 5-4 overtime defeat. A report from Pierre LeBrun of TSN last week suggested Utah had at least checked in on the availability of Blue Jackets defender Ivan Provorov, but they’ll end up netting a much cheaper player in Määttä in terms of both contract and acquisition cost.
Määttä, 30, is in the second year of a two-year, $6MM extension he signed with the Wings in 2023. The Finnish stay-at-home defender has called Detroit home since signing there as a free agent in 2022. He’s inexplicably been pushed down the lineup in recent days, sitting as a healthy scratch in two of the Wings’ last four games despite controlling 57.8% of expected goals when he’s on the ice at even strength. That number jumps out in a big way on a Detroit team that’s again struggled to maintain possession at 5-on-5 this year, controlling 42.5% of shot attempts, 43.7% of scoring chances, and 41.9% of high-danger chances. He’d yet to get on the scoresheet this season and was averaging a career-low 15:52 per game, but his 44.4 CF% was second among Wings defenders only to Simon Edvinsson.
Detroit’s loss is Utah’s gain. Määttä should post better results on a Utah club that’s actually been one of the league’s better 5-on-5 teams this season despite their roller-coaster record. He’s a left-shot but has played on the right side frequently throughout his 12-year NHL career, a task he’ll likely be asked to replicate in Salt Lake City. Whether he immediately steps into a top-four role with Durzi and Marino out remains to be seen, but at the very least, he’s a demonstrable upgrade on either of their current third-pairing options, Robert Bortuzzo and Vladislav Kolyachonok. He had 18 points and a +14 rating in 72 appearances for Detroit last season.
For the Wings, it’s the second time in a few months that general manager Steve Yzerman has traded away one of the more effective defenders on a blue line that has struggled to prevent quality scoring chances. He dealt Jake Walman to the Sharks in a somewhat similar cap-dump move back in June, although that transaction required him to offload a second-round pick to get San Jose to take his entire contract. He’s at least receiving an asset back for Määttä here with no salary retention, but it’s still a puzzling move for a team looking to push for a playoff spot.
Detroit does at least free up a roster spot and a fair amount of cap space with the move. They now have a comfortable $3.58MM in current cap space, per PuckPedia. The flurry of paper transactions to conserve cap space and juggle a full roster should now calm down, and the Red Wings do have far more in-season maneuverability to perhaps address other roster weaknesses in a more cost-effective manner.
If nothing else, Utah is upping their umlaut game.
The Yzerplan strikes again…
All I keep hearing is how Detroit trades yet another quality piece as they continue struggling.
Ok Yzerman fans….let me have it.
I don’t think anyone in their right mind believes this was a good trade.
Doesn’t anybody ever think that, the Bolts finally won “because” Yzerman left and then they started actually building, to be a contender.
You can do a lot worse than Maatta for an injury replacement. Nice pickup for Utah
Olli was SO good as a rookie. We thought we had a young poor man’s Lidstrom.
Then he got cancer and was just never the same player, lost his confidence, etc.
Good kid, got 2 rings, nice career anyway, but…always wonder what he could have been.
“Just the other day, Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde was lamenting the need to find a way to get more playing time for rookie defenseman Albert Johansson.
Tuesday, they came up with a solution. Detroit was making the decision to deal veteran defenseman Olli Maatta to the Utah Grizzlies in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL entry draft.”
Story by Bob Duff, Detroit Hockey Now
So they are the Grizzlies?
Wings create space to play the rookie Johansson and bring back Tyler Motte without sending rookie Marco Kasper down. They also have $3.6M in cap space to aid any future moves.
Meanwhile, another ex-Wing D-man, Jake Walman has 2 3-pt nights in a row to help SJ gain their first 2 wins of the season.
Oh, and Maata can also play the RS where Utah is severely lacking.
That Walman trade was moronic the moment they made it
With Wings struggling for puck control anywhere on the ice, but particularly in the D zone, they seem to be going in the wrong direction for defensive work. Hope there is some plan to get 2 defensive players onto the roster or we’re headed for another bottom 3 spots in the division. Offense seems to have completely stalled out, but that’s probably part of the lack of puck control. Maybe Coach can provide a comment or two.
Never should have signed Gus or traded Walman.
A 3rd round pick is a pretty damn good deal for Detroit. I did not think he could fetch more than a 5th round pick at this point in his career.
Build from the net outward. Today Wings are second from the bottom of the division. In its loss to Toronto, there were at least some flourishes of offensive opportunities. Those have been AWOL for many games now.