Red Wings unlikely to be aggressive at the trade deadline and in free agency
Ansar Khan of MLive: Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman on the NHL trade deadline.
“But regardless, I don’t see us being really aggressive at the trade deadline. In free agency, I’ll take the same approach. If there’s a player that can help us and might be with us in a few years and be a contributor in a few years, we’ll try to spend our money and be aggressive when we think it’s appropriate. Nothing has really changed on the aspect of what we are trying to do. We’re going to stick with it and try to be patient and ultimately just try to make good decisions, whether it be short-term contracts or long-term contracts.”
The Red Wings could look to move pending UFAs Thomas Greiss, Nick Leddy, Marc Staal, Danny DeKeyser, Troy Stecher, Vladislav Namestnikov, Sam Gagner, and Carter Rowney for draft picks. They may only be ble to move a couple of those players.
Will extra cap room lead to a Tomas Hertl extension?
TSN: Depending on how the Evander Kane grievance goes, the San Jose Sharks could have some more salary cap space to work with, and that could go towards an offer for pending UFA forward Tomas Hertl according to Pierre LeBrun.
“Certainly, there may be some room here for the Sharks to make an extension offer for their top centre, Tomas Hertl, who is a UFA at the end of the season. There were talks last summer and Hertl’s camp, led by Newport Sports, said that the Sharks were interested in talking extension at the time. But now that there might be more cap room, I expect the Sharks to circle back over the next month here and perhaps make an offer to Hertl.
If that does not lead to an extension, the trade deadline is March 21 and there may not be a bigger name on the Trade Bait Board than Tomas Hertl if he is officially made available between now and March 21.”
Hertl has a three-team trade list.