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Detroit is facing a Capitals team that hasn’t had the best year. Ovechkin is sitting at only 16 goals in 54 games and looks to be headed to missing the 30 goal mark for only the second time in his career (the first being 20/21 where he had 24 goals in 45 games). For a player that debuted in 2005 that is impressive. The “Great 8… is second only to Wayne Gretzky in career goals as Ovi has 838 and the “Great One… has 894. However, the Caps have seen their stock rise a bit lately. They sit 6 points behind Tampa Bay for the last wild card spot and have 3 games in hand. Detroit is 7 points ahead with the Caps only holding one game in hand. Still, this is another “must win….
The trip to the finish line is going to be exhausting. Right now, Detroit has the edge in the 5 major categories NHL.com lists on game day. Face off, Power Play, Penalty Kill, Goals for and Goals against. Washington has trade interest in former Wing Anthony Mantha and I touched on thatIn Yesterday’s blog.
Also part of that write was a rumor that Perron and Detroit were at least talking about an extension, and later in the day an update came in as “sources… are saying that Berggren is being bandied about as an available player. This is one we’ve all gone back and forth on for at least a month and I’d told you my gut wasn’t feeling great on the situation. Then it was reported JB turned down a contract offer. Now we have to sit back and ponder even more lineup changes.
ESPN reports that Detroit is listening to offers on defensemen. This one threw me for a loop. The report from Emily Kaplan is that Seider and Walman are likely off the table (and I think we’d all assume that to be the case) but that Gostisbehere may be the trade chip teams are asking about.
There has been some consensus that many of you want to see “Ghost… back with Detroit. I’ve been in agreement with that. There is one scenario that could lead to a change and that is the current round of extensions that the office is working on. Rasmussen signed, Berggren didn’t, is it possible that Gostisbehere has an ask for his next deal that doesn’t fit into Detroit’s salary structure? There’s not been any mention of extension talks so that is pure speculation.
However, IF that is the case a package that could include both Berggren and Gostisbehere could net an attractive return. It wouldn’t seem logical for teams to be going after Holl, Petry or Chiarot. Maata has had some good outings and is locked for another year at 3m. There’s no real chatter about him right now either.
The team is playing well, and you hesitate to make any changes unless it seems to be a clear upgrade in either a returning player, a prospect or draft picks. This year’s trade deadline is potentially the most unique in that sense. Detroit looks like a team that can grab a post season spot. However, if you have players that want to move on or are headed to UFA status and you can get value in a deal, there would seem to be logic that dictates the pursuit of the best return possible.
So, what are your thoughts? Will Detroit hit the ice tonight and grab another “W…? Who do you think are the likeliest teams looking at Berggren and/or Gostisbehere. Vancouver may make sense for both, Ottawa could be looking at Berggren and Yzerman was able to make a deal with them last year. It’s all speculation until the paperwork is filed. We’ll see soon enough what the roster for the end of the regular season will look like.