The Detroit Red Wings made their move for defenseman Nick Leddy, acquiring him from the New York Islanders for Richard Panik and a second round pick. The Wings also retained half of Panik’s remaining contract, befuddling many in the fanbase as to what the heck Steve Yzerman is doing in the trade.
As goes the usual retort, no one really knows. But the trade would be the only activity Detroit would have after the hours leading up to the roster freeze saw Nolan Patrick and Cody Glass change zip codes while some other deals occurred right around the time the clock ran out.
Now the entire hockey world pauses until Wednesday when Seattle makes its selections public. At some point today, protection lists are released and Seattle begins cobbling their team together, which as it looks, could very well rival Vegas’ inaugural season if some of the names rumored to be exposed are actually there.
Speculation will run rampant through the lifting of the freeze, where Seattle can still contact teams and do whatever they can to gain more leverage like Vegas did. This included deals that saw sweeteners go west in turn for not taking a player a team still wanted to have.
In other words, Vegas doing the draft so well, they ended up in the Stanley Cup Final in year one of its existence.
Until the freeze is lifted, there will probably be crumbs of information. Many expected a frenzied Saturday–which really did’t pan out. We’ll see what happens through Wednesday.
Red Wings Acquisition of Leddy Shifts Conversation
It wasn’t that they acquired Leddy that confused fans. It’s what they gave up to get him. Much has been discussed and written about Yzerman’s timeline on the rebuild. The Anthony Mantha trade had salary balance it out with Panik but also featured two draft picks–which is what was expected. This one not only saw Detroit give up a second round pick, but also retain salary–for a guy making $5.5M already. To put this into context, he’s making more than everyone except Dylan Larkin.
There’s only one year remaining on the deal, but it seems like maybe it’s a move that is more than just a trade and then flip for a higher pick later on.
There was thought that maybe Yzerman got fleeced, but that seems hard to believe. He’s not going to win every deal, but as the Athletic’s Max Bultman wrote something is just different here:
The short-term fit is obvious as a likely heavily relied-upon defenseman with power-play deployment fills a big need for the Red Wings. But the cost — in terms of both the second-round pick and using one of the limited number of retention spots — seems high considering the position the Islanders were in (which is all about their situation, not about Leddy as a player).
Along with the speculation that will be the days leading up to the Expansion Draft, so too will speculation run rampant. Among the thoughts:
- Is Leddy part of a long term plan instead of being a one and done?
- Is Yzerman sizing something else up and using Leddy to help him in another deal?
- Is it just simply to fill a glaring need and then play it by ear at next year’s trade deadline? Trade for a first and or if things are going well, keep him in the fold?
Last week I wrote that unless there was a blockbuster trade altering the timeline, expect the next season to be another one of transition. I don’t consider this a blockbuster trade in the least, but it’s one that certainly caused everyone to pause. When I initially heard the trade, it made sense. A left hand shot who will be a perfect compliment to Moritz Seider. Championship experience, and a veteran presence that will absolutely help the floundering power play and offense.
But then the price tag was revealed. I didn’t see it as bad. It was just unexpected.
In the end if you mash this deal up with the Mantha one, a first round pick, Jakub Vrana and now Leddy were added while a second round pick (Edmonton’s), Mantha, and Panik were given away.
Really the last question that remains is how this affects Detroit’s protection list. Alex wrote about this yesterday, making a case for the three defensemen vying for that final spot-Dennis Cholowski, Gustav Lindstrom, and Troy Stecher.
Our staff made our guesses as to who we thought would be be on that list and I figured Stecher would be exposed so the younger d-men would be kept in the fold. Now? Who knows.
We’ll all know soon enough.
What we don’t know–and what will be interesting to watch–is what move Yzerman makes next.