Another NHL Trade Deadline is in the books. The annual arms race lived up to the hype as several teams made moves – some bigger than others – to improve their chances of making the playoffs and winning a championship.
The Detroit Red Wings joined in on the fun, completing one trade before the deadline passed. The deal saw them send forward Joe Veleno to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for forward Craig Smith and goaltender Petr Mrázek. Although this trade might have flown a bit under the radar due to the fireworks going on elsewhere around the league, it has major implications for Detroit this season and next.
But before we can dive into what the Red Wings did, I think it is important to take stock of what happened around the league, specifically within the Atlantic Division. Detroit may have made a move, but they sure didn’t load up like some of their division rivals did….
Red Wings One of the Quieter Atlantic Division Teams
As of this writing, three familiar teams sit at the top of the Atlantic Division: the Florida Panthers, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Ottawa Senators hold one of the wild card spots in the Eastern Conference, and the Montreal Canadiens are tied with the Red Wings with 66 points. The Buffalo Sabres are, inexplicably, at the bottom of the Eastern Conference again, and the Boston Bruins signaled the end of an era by aggressively selling despite being just two points behind Detroit and Montreal.
Though the trade deadline is always a leaguewide arms race, the top three teams in the Atlantic Division were absolutely gearing up for war at the deadline:
- The Lightning acquired forwards Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand from the Seattle Kraken. The move cements Tampa Bay’s deepest offensive lineup since their back-to-back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The Lightning also sent a fourth round pick to the Red Wings in exchange for retaining half of Gourde’s salary (his deal expires after this season.)
- The Maple Leafs went big-game hunting, but ultimately came out of the deadline with center Scott Laughton in a deal with the Philadelphia Flyers, as well as defenseman Brandon Carlo from the Bruins. These two deals, along with the acquisition of Reese Johnson from the Minnesota Wild, should make them tougher to play against in their own zone; Carlo, specifically, should prove to be a big acquisition for their blue line.
- While the Red Wings were playing outdoors at Ohio Stadium, the Florida Panthers were trading goalie Spencer Knight to the Blackhawks for defenseman Seth Jones. They acquired goalie Vitek Vanecek and forward Nico Sturm from the San Jose Sharks, and then they shocked the hockey universe by acquiring Bruins captain Brad Marchand for a conditional second round pick.
The Senators also made a noteworthy move, acquiring Dylan Cozens from the Sabres. The move makes the Senators a little bit bigger down the middle, and all eyes are now on Cozens as we wait and see if he’ll be the next Sabre that breaks out after leaving Buffalo. This move is noteworthy for Red Wings fans as Detroit was heavily linked to Cozens back in December before the rumored deal fell through.
Related: 2025 NHL Trade Deadline Tracker
With the Red Wings’ players, coaching staff and front office saying all the right things about striving to make the playoffs, it is perhaps a bit disheartening to see them tinker with their lineup while most of their division made big moves to improve their chances.
(On the topic of Cozens, I’ve been told from a trusted source that the hang-up on the deal was that the Sabres wanted Marco Kasper in the deal, but the Red Wings wouldn’t budge. While I can’t verify this as 100 percent accurate, the Sabres were known to have interest in Kasper before Detroit took him eighth overall back in 2022, so I am inclined to believe that there is some truth to this. We may never know what the full details of the proposed deal looked like, however.)
Welcome Back, Petr Mrazek
Longtime fans of the Red Wings will recognize Mrázek as the Red Wings’ former “goalie of the future”. Drafted back in 2010, the Czech goaltender quickly rose to prominence after he helped lead the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Red Wings’ American Hockey League affiliate, to their first Calder Cup championship back in 2013. Shortly after, he supplanted Jimmy Howard as the starter in Detroit, starting in 119 games for the Red Wings from the 2014-15 season to the 2016-17 season.
But just as he rose to fame, Mrázek quickly fell back down to earth. With whispers of attitude issues surrounding him as well as consistency issues creeping up in his game, the Red Wings opted to leave him exposed in the Vegas expansion draft. Though the Golden Knights did not claim him, it was clear from that point that the Red Wings and Mrázek were headed for a divorce. He was traded to the Flyers on Feb. 19, 2018 in exchange for a conditional third round pick in 2019.
Since then, Mrázek enjoyed a successful stint with the Carolina Hurricanes from 2018 to 2021, a not-so-successful season with the Maple Leafs, and then two and a half seasons with the Blackhawks. Joining the Blackhawks served as a bit of a full circle moment for the him as he was tasked with being the veteran presence in goal while Chicago endured the tear-down phase of their rebuild.
At 33 years of age, Mrázek has 178 wins in 423 appearances, a 2.85 goals-against average and a .906 save-percentage. He has another year left on his contract, carrying a cap hit of $4.25 million, something that general manager Steve Yzerman said appealed to the Red Wings as it provides “certainty” at the position heading into next season.
The Red Wings’ acquisition of Mrázek raises the question: are they getting the same guy they had all those years ago? I asked THW Blackhawks reporter Brooke LoFurno to weigh in.
“[Mrázek] was such a rockstar all season last year. Literally probably their best player (besides Connor Bedard),” LoFurno said. “Bedard even called him ‘our rock’ and he was. Was probably the best season of his career.
This season has been tough. [Mrázek] started okay, but he injured his groin in December, and even when he returned, I wondered if it was still a problem because he didn’t look like himself. I think he is okay now, but I do wonder if that groin injury set him back from having the season he wanted.”
LoFurno also mentioned that Mrázek’s inconsistency this season ultimately paved the way for the Blackhawks to acquire Knight from the Panthers, thus pushing Mrázek down to third on the depth chart behind Knight and Arvid Söderblom. However, the veteran goaltender’s attitude should not be in question according to LoFurno.
“If I was Mrázek, I would have been upset because he did do a lot for the Hawks and carried the team on his back, just for them to kind of kick him aside after they got Knight. On the personal side, I felt for him. So for him to remain so positive and say he was going to bring a great attitude and help Knight and Soderblom was fantastic.”
The fact of the matter is that Mrázek has settled into the role of a tandem goalie in the NHL. Last season was the first time he appeared in 50 games or more since his last full season with the Red Wings. With Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon still under contract and on the roster for this season, Mrázek almost certainly won’t be tasked with carrying a starter’s workload down the stretch. After getting lit up with the rebuilding Blackhawks for the last couple of years, joining a team in the playoff mix might even rejuvenate Mrázek’s season.
Regardless, there will be just as many fans that are excited to see Mrázek in the winged-wheel again as there are that are groaning at the thought of it. He was a polarizing figure in his final year with the Red Wings, but this trade is an opportunity to wipe the slate clean. 12 years after becoming the Red Wings’ goalie of the future, he is set to play a big role in determining whether or not Detroit will end their playoff drought.
Don’t Forget About Craig Smith
Mrázek will get most of the attention due to his familiarity with the Red Wings organization, but Smith could prove to be a sneaky grab for Detroit as well.
The 35-year-old forward is a veteran of 968 regular season games and has 450 career points. Throughout his career, he has always been a depth scorer, never averaging more than 15:44 in ice-time since the 2014-15 season. His analytics almost always paint the picture of a player that pushes play in the right direction, does not usually engage physically, and can put the puck in the net despite limited minutes.
Smith has also played in over 80 playoff games, which includes when he was a member of the Nashville Predators during their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2017. The Red Wings are going to find themselves in many playoff atmospheres in the final month of the season, and having players like Smith in the lineup that have been in those situations many times should help Detroit’s inexperienced lineup.
“I did really like Craig Smith,” LoFurno said. “The fourth line of him, Pat Maroon, and Lukas Reichel was ironically one of the best on the team. Hard working, pesky depth forward.”
If nothing else, Smith is a more proven NHL player than Veleno is, and Smith should provide a little more offensive punch in the bottom six than Veleno did. If the trade was simply Veleno-for-Smith, it would probably be seen as a win for the Red Wings. Mrázek’s inclusion muddies up the water a bit, but you can’t be too upset about the Red Wings’ front office turning a player that was in and out of the lineup (Veleno) for two players with experience that should elevate their lineup, even if it’s only by a little bit.
With just over a month left in the season, the Red Wings cannot afford to stretch their current losing streak much further. They missed the playoffs by a single point last season and, if they aren’t careful, they could meet a worse fate this season. As of this writing, they are only one point out of a playoff spot, but they are also only five points ahead of the sixth-worst team in the NHL. When the margins between the playoffs and a top-10 draft pick are that thin, you have to put your best effort forward every night if you want the former outcome instead of the latter.
We’ll soon see if the Red Wings’ move at the deadline did enough to move the needle in the right direction.
