The Ville Leino experiment in Detroit is over.
According to Detroit Free Press, Ville Leino has been traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for a 5th round pick and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen. What this means is Detroit is making enough room to return Franzen to the line-up. The highly touted elite scorer in the Finnish league struggled to produce in the NHL under the Red Wings system.
It’s kind of up in the air about where Tollefsen will fit in the line-up. Leino had a good couple of games last regular season but was largely ineffective in the playoffs and this regular season. One of the keys to this trade is that the Wings add some defensive depth, eliminate some contract money, and possibly set themselves up to move Tollefsen in a future trade.
Tollefsen brings a fairly cheap cap hit at $600,000 so you could very well see Lebda and Meech both being moved if Andreas Lilja is able to make a full recovery.
UPDATE: Tollefsen was already waived in attempt to put him in Grand Rapids. If he’s claimed on waivers, the Wings probably won’t be all that upset. He will appear in Grand Rapids on Monday if he clears waivers.
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