A late-night move for your Detroit Red Wings, who have shipped Olli Maatta off to the Utah Hockey Club in exchange for the Rangers’ 2025 third-round pick.
Tuesday practice updates forecasted that something along these lines was possible — Derek Lalonde told the media that they would need to make a roster decision once Tyler Motte was ready to return, as they were already carrying 23 players. Here is that decision.
This is good news for two young Red Wings specifically. Namely, Marco Kasper, who would have been the “easy move” to free up that roster spot since he could be returned to Grand Rapids without waivers. This may not be his “you’re here to stay” notice quite yet, but his play is forcing Detroit’s hand. Aside from Kasper, Albert Johansson has been a frequent scratch due to the mix of five left-shot defensemen on the roster, so this reduces the competition and theoretically opens up the opportunity for him to get in the lineup more regularly.
On the flip side, Maatta was fairly dependable, playing mostly on Detroit’s third pair for the last two seasons and change. He wasn’t perfect, but there have certainly been bigger problems in that slot over the last decade. While fans have been clamoring for more Johansson, it also means more Erik Gustafsson and Justin Holl — who have both struggled mightily at times, though Holl has had some nice games since returning to the lineup. It’s a loss to a penalty kill unit that has been among the league’s worst so far this season — certainly unfair to pin on one particular player, though. The percentages are nearly guaranteed to improve, but the bottom line is Detroit is down an experienced penalty-killing defenseman.
Overall, a third seems like a reasonable return from Utah, who are without two top-four defensemen for the long term with John Marino and Sean Durzi both injured. The Red Wings also gain some cap flexibility for more potential maneuvering later in the season, freeing up whatever is left of Maatta’s $3 million cap hit.
The now-lighter-on-umlauts Red Wings are back in action on Wednesday, hosting the league-leading (?!) Winnipeg Jets at 7:30 p.m. More coverage to come.
