Teams will pay for Allen

I had a Blues fan in my last armchair gm propose this trade. I see your point though. Allen is coming of a good season.

Do you think the Blues would rather pay to get rid of Bozak?

Teams will pay to get Bozak and Allen. They have decent worth, just overpaid.

Fair enough. A deal with the Blues might not make sense for the Wings then. I tried a trade for Steen in my last one where the Red Wings would buy him out so he could sign back in St Louis at a cheaper cost but Blues fans didn't like that either.

In my personal opinion, Steen would be the only buy-out worthy candidate on St. Louis. St. Louis could get positive value on both Allen & Bozak.

With that being said I think there are lots of options for Detroit to take on salary for higher picks. Ladd is a bit too risky and has too much term I think but you could look at players like Leddy (positive value), Boychuk, Hickey, Komarov. Another team that comes to mind is Vancouver as they have: Eriksson, Baertschi & Sutter.

I would move either NYI's 2021 1st (top 3 protected) or Bellows if it meant clearing Ladd. Wahlstrom would be a very tough sell. We also need to see if the league will be allowing a CBO. Changes everything.

In my 1st version of this armchair gm, I got steen, hickey, and Eriksson.

I think that with Ladd's term, the Wings would need to get a lot of value back to make it worth it. It would definitely cost more than a 1st round pick. Maybe a 1st and 2nd? I understand that the Islanders wouldn't want to give up much but it would have to be enough to make the trade worth it for the WIngs.

Bozak and Allen could fetch a mid pick (~4) and Steen has negative value. Most will not want to pay to clear up cap space since they know how valuable a constant stream of ELCs will be to the future.

Detroit should just sit tight and pretty and pick up any UFAs on short term deals unless someone coughs up futures like Toronto did last year with Marleau (6.25M cap hit 1 year and far less in actual cash).

I’m not the biggest fan in Wahlstrom so I wouldn’t do the Islander trade considering that’s three more years and Dobson isn’t going anywhere. Ladd and Boychuk are two options for the Islanders but it all depends on what futures they’d give up. Since most of the owners are against a CBO and probably players too it will definitely be an interesting offseason.

Isles aren't trading top prospects for a guy who will be placed on LTIR as early as next year

Way too much from NYI. Even Dave Bolland and Lawson Crouse got a 2nd and 3rd.

Proposed that thinking that you were taking Steen as well, for the record

Oh ok. That makes more sense.

Do you think the Blues would be willing to give up a 2nd for the Red Wings taking Steen with the same condition that the Red Wings would buy him out so the Blues could resign him?

I think it depends, I tend to think they'll probably try and look at moving Bozak and Allen first just because they have less trade clauses to work out, cheaper overall contracts, and they are more useful players (and thus, potentially partners that we will not have to pay to take the contracts). Steen also has a certain pedigree on the Blues that I could see Armstrong not pursing a trade-and-buyout situation with him and letting him just ride out his contract as a thank you. If I was GM though, I'd look to move Steen and Allen because that clears a lot of cap space (even with re-signing Steen in a buyout situation) while downgrading our roster the least (Bozak still has a pretty important defensive/third line role).

I think the Red Wings are a pretty good candidate for Allen since they could use a solid goaltender to pair with Bernier next year and that could potentially even be a longer-term situation that works out after Allen's contract is up as a stopgap while you guys develop some goaltending prospects, but maybe that's just me overvaluing Allen. I do think Allen is a starter-calibur goaltender that just needs a fresh start somewhere. He's proved this year he has the talent to work well in a tandem at least. And Detroit has the cap room to eat one year of a Steen buyout, so that's why the Steen thing makes sense.

I think a trade such as Steen+Allen+2022 2nd for Zetterberg's contract + 2022 5th work for both sides. Maybe the Blues throw a mid tier prospect like Tucker or Stevens in there (legitimate NHL potential, but might take a bit yet). That gets some real money off the Red Wings' books that the Blues shouldn't mind paying but doesn't count against our cap and gives us some flexibility in Petrangelo/Dunn negotiations. But I do have a bias towards the Blues, so maybe that's not fair from your perspective.

A 2022 2nd? Sure.

I see what your saying now. I agree that Jake Allen would be an interesting option for the Red Wings. He would likely struggle more after going from one of the best teams in the league to the worst team in the league. I'm not too familiar with any Blues prospects but adding a mid-tier prospect or a mid/late round pick in addition to the 2nd should be enough to get the deal done.

So maybe Allen+Steen+2022 2nd+2021 4th or 5th (or prospect with similar value) for Zetterberg+5th?

Yeah, I like it. Again, not sure that's the route the real Blues would go, and it would require Steen (and Zetterberg, though hopefully he wouldn't care) to agree to be traded. But I think it addresses some needs for both sides well enough.

Maybe we trade you a goaltending prospect. We've got quite a few good ones that on the young side (so probably three-four years out of seeing the NHL) and I'm under the impression Detroit is rather thin on that area.

That could work. Again, I'm not too familiar with any Blues prospects but acquiring a goalie prospect could help the Wings. Young goalies are often unpredictable but I don't really see any current Red Wings goalie prospects making the jump to the NHL.