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If Tomas Tatar produces for the Vegas Golden Knights to the level of value that he provided Monday by departing the Detroit Red Wings, then both sides of this NHL deadline-day deal should be smiling for a long time.
In return for the left-winger, a three-time 20-goal scorer, the Wings received a first-round pick in the 2018 NHL entry draft, a second-round pick in 2019, and a third-round pick in 2021. That’s an impressive haul for someone who figures to operate as a secondary piece in the Golden Knights’ puzzle.
Tatar is a solid player. He’s durable, reliable, and although a streaky scorer, he gets 20 every season, something few players do consistently in today’s NHL. If the Wings were on the cusp of doing something great in the near future, he’d be a valuable part of that equation. But they aren’t, and Tatar is 27. He’ll get a real chance to go deep into the playoffs with the surprising Vegas squad.
“I really made the deal because we’re looking forwards the future,” Red Wings GM Ken Holland told Mlive.com. “I had to make a decision, and as I look towards ’18-19, I thought that we have a lot of wingers on our board competing for spots next year – Tatar, (Gustav) Nyquist, (Andreas) Athanasiou, (Anthony) Mantha, (Justin) Abdelkader, (Luke) Glendening, (Darren) Helm.”
Tyler Bertuzzi moved up to the big club this season. There’s also Evgeny Svechnikov in AHL Grand Rapids, and 2017 first-round pick Michael Rasmussen with Tri-City of the WHL, a center who if he cracks the Detroit lineup next season at 19, could do like Dylan Larkin and launch his NHL career on the wing.
“I think we were dealing from a position where I had a lot of wingers,” Holland said. “I wanted to create some opportunity for the younger people.
“I’m trying to build a team here that somewhere down the road can compete for a Stanley Cup. It’s gotta be done through the draft. If there’s more draft picks, there’s more assets.”
The Wings also hold Ottawa’s second-round pick this June and could conceivably make four picks in the top 45. Or they could look to package one of their first rounders to try and acquire some established talent, perhaps help for the defense.
“Do we use the picks to do something? I don’t know,” Holland said. “We’ll see what the future brings, but the reality is the more assets you have, we’ll be able to use those future assets.”
This can play out as the proverbial deal that helps both parties. Tatar gets a realistic shot at a Stanley Cup and Vegas gets a proven scorer with three years remaining on his contract. And if the Wings utilize their additional draft picks wisely, they can put the team back on track to being a playoff club.
Injury Scuttled Green Deal
Holland will take plenty of heat for not being able to move defenseman Mike Green, but as the week played out, Green’s inability to return from the upper body injury he suffered Feb. 15 at Tampa Bay that’s kept him out of the lineup the past six days proved to be a deal breaker.
The Lightning were one of the teams kicking the tires on Green, as was his old club the Washington Capitals, and he’d agreed to waive his no trade clause to go to either team.
“There was interest, and over the last week, obviously Mike hasn’t played,” Holland explained. “I have to give full disclosure. One team out there requested his medical reports and I talked to our team doctor. Another team was very interested over the last four or five days, but Mike hasn’t been able to play.
“The injury he’s got is something that could resurface again here. That had everything to do with Mike Green remaining a Red Wing. I talked to Mike, he was open to being traded. He would have loved to have the opportunity to go to a team that had a real chance to win the Stanley Cup, had that conversation 10 days ago. Two teams wanted to know specifically what was going on with his injury and that had a real bearing on their decision. Teams that had interest couldn’t justify that they were taking on that cap space and were going to maybe spend some assets and run the risk that Mike, they weren’t sure when he was going to get healthy and could he play until the middle of June?”
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