GDT: St. Louis Blues @ Detroit Red Wings

[Dotter]

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[ArGarBarGar]

I disagree. It is proving rebuilding efforts. Just not "scorched earth", "burn it down", or "Shanaplan". Which is what I gather most fans here don't want anyhow.

The typical talking point is "Wings sign mediocre UFA at deadline", which is true... but prove trade value at TDL (see Vanek). That returns free picks we otherwise wouldn't have. Also, Jim Devellano touched on this. Wings aren't attracting many UFA... Which explains why they locked down players to long contracts to help through this time of rebuild.

There are shades of gray with rebuilding. Trading away players who aren't very good is not indicative of a rebuild.

The "Shanaplan" is not even all the way tanking, either. They moved their high value veterans (Kessel, Phaneuf), kept some of the younger ones (JVR, Kadri), and embraced the concept of having a poor year to get some high value prospects, getting fortunate to win the lottery and land Matthews. The Red Wings can do something like this to embrace the new era of the team. Jurco, Sheahan and Smith are not high value. Not even moderate value. Vanek was a good trade (though with a one-year deal he was brought on as more of a short-term player anyway), but you have to do more than that if you want to demonstrate a commitment to a rebuild.

 

[Dotter]

I'm not exactly sure what "high value" return they got from their 'high value vets' (Kessel, Phanuef). Looking at the trade again, all they really got was a starting goalie and a couple of mid round draft picks. Nothing notable.

So that'd be like Red Wings trading Tatar and Green for a starting goalie and a 2nd. Ken Holland would get ripped apart for a deal like that.

I don't follow TMLs, but aside from landing Marner and Matthews, they haven't really done anything that impressive to me. And Matthews fell right into their lap. It'll be interesting to see how they keep the band together when they start getting those big raises.