Fact Or Fiction: Were The Red Wings Unable To Jettison Danny DeKeyser To Winnipeg?

As the Jacob Trouba saga continues to unfold in Winnipeg, a new “report” came out earlier today that Detroit blue-liner, Danny DeKeyser, may or may not have been part of a deal to try and land Trouba in Detroit for the 2016-2017 season.

While on Vancouver’s TSN 1040 Tuesday afternoon, Darren Dreger continued to discuss the Detroit Red Wings and Ken Holland’s efforts in trying to acquire the Michigan-born Trouba (as transcribed by Chris Nichols at Today’s Slapshot):

“I mentioned Detroit a couple of weeks ago publicly as being one of the primary suitors for Jacob Trouba. I can tell you that Kenny Holland has worked incredibly hard over the past couple few years at trying to add a defenseman. I know that he’s had conversations with Cheveldayoff, and I believe that Holland is willing to make a deal for just about anyone outside of Dylan Larkin. But there’s no one really in the Detroit Red Wings organization that seems to be a fit for Cheveldayoff, which tells me that Winnipeg, again, is committed to being patient.”

When asked if adding any of Detroit’s current defenceman in the deal was enticing to Cheveldayoff and the Jets, Dreger threw a little gasoline on the fire:

“Doesn’t sound like it. Danny DeKeyser is a pretty good hockey player. I would have thought him and geez – if you have to throw someone else in, I guess you try and sweeten it.”

So did Ken Holland kick the tires on DeKeyser and throw him in the mix for Trouba? Or is Dreger simply speculating here? As the old saying goes, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

It’s obvious that Cheveldayoff is asking a pretty penny for Jacob Trouba, which has become the norm for any highly-valued player these days. It’s also fairly obvious that the Jets are looking for one, if not two, top-tier forwards as part of the deal, and in the Red Wings case, Dylan Larkin was surely one of those desired forwards.

This is the first that I have personally heard about DeKeyser’s name being thrown in the mix for Trouba, but it wouldn’t surprise me that a GM trying to move one of his top blue-liners would want to acquire a comparable replacement in the process.

My take from this whole mess is that Cheveldayoff most likely wanted Larkin first and foremost in this deal, which we all know was never going to happen. By not giving up Larkin, any other names Holland threw out simply fell on deaf/uninterested ears. Players like Brendan Smith and Danny DeKeyser may have been offered up alongside a Gustav Nyquist or a Tomas Tatar as a counter-offer, but Winnipeg obviously had little or no interest.

At the end of the day the Red Wings and Ken Holland do what they have done for the last several years, kick some tires and reject some extremely high asking prices. Trade speculation is a fun game, but not one worth losing your mind and assets over.