I'm not sure if our teams make great trading partners at this stage. It seems like any trade to improve the defense via Carolina would likely be really expensive for Detroit in ways that wouldn't really make sense for them. You guys have some fantastic young forwards, but they all seem to be part of what Detroit is building on as opposed to what they're moving away from. It feels like Detroit is on the precipice of committing to a rebuild/reload like the one we started a few years ago and it would be more prudent to stay the course with the young forwards and not try to make a bottom third team a middle of the road team to prolong the lean times. That isn't to say that Carolina is light years ahead of Detroit like a homer, but Carolina brass honestly views themselves as being really close to having a playoff competitive squad. Detroit has an odd mixture of veterans that are in the later stages (Zetterberg, Vanek, Nielsen), players who currently reside at their lowest value (Abdelkader, Helm, Sheahan), and young forwards who are seemingly essential to the rebuild (Larkin, Mantha, Nyquist, Tatar). That seemingly only leaves a few guys like Tyler Bertuzzi and Athanasiou as assets that would make sense for either party. I'm not sure that Carolina feels overly enthusiastic about either of those names if they're even names that Detroit would want to discuss.
Outside of that issue, the valuation becomes a problem even if a few of those names that are in the protected category are open to inquiries. Carolina only wants to move a player from their defense if they're an absolute upgrade and worth the squeeze that parting with a player like Hanifin would be. Presumably, we aren't talking about Haydn Fleury here. Nyquist and Tatar would be the closest to what we'd be looking for in terms of value, but I don't think Carolina feels incredibly comfortable unless the player they're getting back has similar upside. While Nyquist and Tatar are fantastic pieces, they don't offer the same upside that Hanifin does. They are essentially what they are going to be at this point, which is 45-55 point players. That's not a slight by any stretch, but Hanifin certainly has the potential to achieve those totals from defense if his trajectory continues. And if the price for a 45-55 point player is Noah Hanifin, we'd be silly to not keep him. If we start to discuss deals like a two for one, it becomes immediately insulting to both sides.
I think it's likely more prudent for Detroit and Carolina to seek out different avenues to improve their teams.