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Red Wings acquire David Legwand

By Jeff Hancock
Tom Szczerbowski


Ken Holland apparently didn't like his team all that much. And, quite frankly, how could he? The Wings are missing arguably their four best centers and are looking at Andersson-Sheahan-Glendening-Emmerton down the middle for the foreseeable future. So what did he do? The exact thing he said he wasn't going to do… acquire a rental.

Welcome home, David Legwand.

The Red Wings have traded for the Michigan native from the Nashville Predators. Legwand now becomes the Wings' top line center until the team's injuries heal up. The cost though? Not that much.

Happy for Patrick Eaves. He will hopefully finally get to play in the NHL regularly the rest of the season in Nashville. He wasn't going to see much time with the Wings moving forward and he wasn't going to be re-signed this offseason. A 3rd round pick? That's not much. The prospect? Rumor is it's Calle Jarnkrok. If that's the case, this deal is a little harder to swallow, but you have to give to get and the Wings weren't in a position of strength trying to acquire a center. We'll see if the Jarnkrok rumor is legit. UPDATE: It's confirmed to be Calle Jarnkrok. This reeks of a panic move because of the Datsyuk and Helm injuries. I have no problem trading Jarnkrok if the the return involved Ryan Kesler or Christian Ehrhoff. Not Legwand.

So why did Holland trade for a potential rental? There has been speculation that this deal happened because management fears Stephen Weiss will not play again this season.

Ken Holland stated about 90 minutes before the deadline that the severeness of the Pavel Datsyuk and Darren Helm injuries would help dictate if he made a move. UPDATE: Datsyuk is out for the next 3 weeks and Helm reportedly has headache issues


Let's Go Red Wings.