The Grind Line: Red Wings’ Trade Worthy Prospects

What’s The Grind Line? Apart from the once-famous line of Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, and either Joe Kocur or Darren McCarty, The Grind Line is also The Hockey Writers’ weekly column about the Detroit Red Wings. Rachel Anderson and Tony Wolak are the muckers who make up THW’s forechecking unit and sound off on Red Wings topics.

Over the years, the Detroit Red Wings have amassed quite the collection of prospects. Much like the club’s current NHL roster, the prospect pool has become log-jammed with unusable players. The usability isn’t necessarily due to a lack of talent but rather, a lack of development opportunity with the team. 

Detroit has players developing in virtually every league as of now – the KHL, SHL, Liiga, QMJHL, NCAA, AHL, and the list goes on. Many of these skaters, young and very pliable in terms of the development, would make excellent trade bait pieces. Several could be moved with the intent of making room in the pool for more focused development and get a more immediate return.

Could Yzerman trade Dennis Cholowski? He didn’t draft the defenseman and his NHL stints have been pretty rough so far. I explored the scenario in my recent mock trade deadline.

It’s unlikely that the Red Wings trade their former first-round pick, but it’s certainly an interesting option to consider. 

Are there any prospects you think would add value to a Red Wings trade? Comment below!