Ban Price trades
Joined: Oct. 2017
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The success of the Detroit Red Wings in the future is going to hinge on two very pivotal elements regarding their prospects:
1. How patient is the organization willing to be?
2. What quality of player will these prospects be insulated with when they do arrive?
It's key to recognize that the Wings are going to be awful for at least 2 more seasons. There's no way around it. With that in mind, I believe it's ludicrous that many AGMs have been projecting Seider, Veleno, and (to an extent) Zadina onto the NHL roster well before the potential for the AHL to cancel its season ever came to light. Neither Seider nor Veleno ripped the doors off of the AHL and would absolutely benefit from playing in an environment where they can hone their craft and have a chance at a winning season. Zadina - in my eyes - falls into this category too, but more in regards to how playing in a winning culture has an effect on prospect development. The Red Wings cannot afford to condition their upcoming players to losing.
Even if a Rossi or Raymond has the toolbox to play in the NHL, they shouldn't be near the big league for at minimum a year. Patience is a virtue. If the group of McIssac, Rossi, Seider, Veleno, and Zadina all play against men in Europe next year, they'll fare that much better against men back in the NHL, and they won't need to finish 31st to do it. Making sure that a future guy like Owen Power is absolutely ready to make the transition to the NHL is damn important too. Remember: Cale Makar took the extra year at Amherst, expect a name like Power to do the same.
This is why it's been really good for the Red Wings to find money in guys like Fabbri. Take those flyers on names that need a second chance over the next two years if attracting the big game UFAs is not on the menu. If they can't figure it out, no harm and no foul. If they manage to get their game together, they're a piece moving forward. I think guys like Bowey, Cholowski, Rassmussen, and Svechnikov very much fall into this category right now: they haven't met expectations and might have more to give. Giving them the room to run in the short term might reveal some of what they were drafted for. Otherwise, targeting guys like Galchenyuk in free agency is a super low-risk play to make.
Edmonton notoriously took the path of drafting the top guy at #1 then threw them to the wolves without any insulation. Hall and Nugent-Hopkins were expected to dig this team out from the dirt with Sam Gagner as the #1 or #2 center - depending on where RNH would slot that night. Justin Schultz went from the NCAA to being a top-pair defender and if it wasn't for the Penguins, Edmonton would have obliterated his career. Devan Dubnyk went on to be a Vezina candidate when he found a team that had the proper insulation and framework. Rebuilds do not work if there isn't a pre-existing core of guys that can mentor and play ahead of the rookies: leaving the fate of your franchise in the hands of an 18 year-old never pans out, hence why Edmonton's only managing now to see relevance but Buffalo is stuck floundering. Toronto had a strong cast of guys remain on the roster when Matthews, Nylander, and Marner joined the big club (Rielly, Kadri, JVR, Bozak) and insulated them sufficiently enough to get their franchise back on the right track. Detroit needs to do the same.
I don't think this will be the case with the Red Wings: Bertuzzi, Fabbri, Hronek, Larkin, and Mantha are a good cluster to add prospects to. Picking up Demko for essentially free doesn't hurt either. Keeping Dekeyser around as the "veteran" of the group has merit too. It will be important however, to make sure that this isn't the only cluster of "veterans" that names like Rossi, Seider, and Zadina are surrounded with. Unless the target is to take a high-quality prospect back in return - such as in the Demko for Eriksson trade - teams looking to use Detroit to shed cap are going to have to look at surrendering players that are more than just cap dumps. Guys like Tyler Johnson or Patrick Hornqvist in the last year or two of their deals would be perfect targets for Detroit: guys that have been there and could still handle middle-six minutes.
If the Red Wings play their cards right, the Atlantic division finds themselves another high-skill nightmare team to play against. By the time the Bruins and/or Lightning are on the decline in 2ish years, the Red Wings will be one of the teams poised to join Toronto at the top of the division.