Bob McKenzie was on TSN 1040 this morning, among the topics he weighed in on, the Red Wings were a part of them. Thanks to the transcription from Chris Nichols at Today’s Slapshot, we can discuss what was said:
“The Detroit Red Wings, I think, want to make some big moves. They want to move Datsyuk’s contract. They’d probably love to give up a guy like Jurco or Pulkkinen in order to facilitate that. But I think they want to try and clear the decks, and if Steven Stamkos becomes available, I think they might be inclined to be a player on that front.”
It’s no surprise that the Red Wings would likely need to give up assets in order to move Pavel Datsyuk’s $7.5 million worth of dead money. I was anticipating it possibly being a draft pick, but it appears to be one of their “extra” roster players. Jurco, and Pulkkinen, as we all know, have been scraping for minutes during their time in Detroit. If I had to take my choice at either player, I’d say that Pulkkinen should be the one to go as much as it hurts to say. The New Jersey Devils recently acquired Marc Savard’s contract from the Florida Panthers, which ended up costing the Florida Panthers a second-round pick in 2018. Since this happened, the dead-money trade market has tightened up. Datsyuk’s contract is significantly higher than Savard’s. What McKenzie is saying is essentially that the Red Wings would love to get off cheap by trading either Jurco or Pulkkinen, as opposed to chomping at the bit to get rid of them.
Getting rid of Datsyuk’s contract would open up multiple opportunities to make big additions in the offseason, all of which start with top free agent Steven Stamkos.
