Detroit Red Wings: 5 Young Players to Target at 2022 Trade Deadline

The Detroit Red Wings enter the week before the trade deadline with a variety of options available to them as the deadline approaches. Their playoff chances are all but gone, but that doesn’t mean their trade deadline strategy is as cut and dry as other teams that are locks to miss the playoffs. While they won’t be making moves to add significant pieces like Stanley Cup contenders across the league, that doesn’t preclude them from finding players they could add to their organization.

Sometimes, adding a young player into those types of deals not only offers the team some future upside, but it also gives that player a second lease on life in the NHL, or just a bigger opportunity than the one they had with their former team. For an example of this, look no further than the Red Wings’ request acquisition of defenseman Olli Juolevi from waivers.

Vilardi was selected just two spots after the Red Wings snagged Michael Rasmussen with the ninth pick of the 2017 draft. At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, Vilardi has good size for a centerman, and has sometimes looked lost when the Kings have played him on the wing before. He was drafted as a center, and you can tell that that is where he is most comfortable. After playing in 54 games with the Kings last season (where he put up a respectable 23 points). he has only appeared in eight games in the NHL this season. Through 39 games with the AHL’s Ontario Reign this season, he has 15 goals and 38 points, cementing that fact that he is probably too good for the AHL at this point in his young career. The 22-year-old needs an opportunity to break out, and there’s an opportunity waiting in Detroit.

Meanwhile, Turcotte seems somewhat lost in the mix as he was selected to become Los Angeles’s top center of the future, and then one year later they added Byfield after the lottery awarded them the second overall pick. At best, he projects as their second line center of the future, but even that seems like less of a foregone conclusion at this point. The 21-year-old has 39 points through 58 career AHL games. While that total isn’t bad by any means, it also doesn’t necessarily live up to the draft hype that surrounds a fifth overall pick. Due to the Kings’ depth down the middle, he may never get the opportunity to blossom into an NHL top six center. With this in mind, he may very well be LA’s best trading chip, especially if they want to put together a package to acquire somebody like Bertuzzi to help their chances in this year’s playoffs.

Red Wings Should Target Prospects Instead of Picks

Make no mistake, the Red Wings could use as many draft picks as they can get their hands on in order to keep their prospect pool stocked through the end of their rebuild. However, after staying in the thick of the playoff race through the first half of the season, they have an equally pressing need to find and add good, young players that could potentially contribute now or next season. Adding players like that could be the difference between completing this rebuild in two years as opposed to four or more years.

The time for the Red Wings to act as a “second chance” for unproven young players is starting to run out. Before long, they’ll shift their attention to adding proven NHL veterans to supplement their existing core. If the Red Wings want to take a chance on another team’s unproven player(s), now is the time, and the players listed above would all undoubtedly appreciate the opportunity to realize their NHL potential.