Just as Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said would be the case, Detroit did not make any NHL trade deadline moves. The Red Wings instead decided to stand pat with what they have, passing on mixing up the roster with only a month and a half left until the NHL playoffs begin.
Interestingly, the Red Wings were one of just two teams in the NHL's Central Division to not make a move right before the trade deadline. Chicago, Columbus and St. Louis were all involved in trades today:
The Blackhawks acquired defenseman Chris Campoli and a conditional seventh-round pick in 2011 from Ottawa for forward Ryan Potulny and a second-round pick in 2011.
With the NHL trade deadline approaching (it is at 3 p.m. today), there have been lots of rumors floating around, but all in all it has been relatively quiet here in Detroit. Aside from the Bogosian rumor, not much else has been thrown out there, mainly because Holland himself has said that he doesn't plan on making any moves.
"I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll do something, for a number of reasons," Holland said. "First off, the team has played at a high level. We have the third-most points in the league and the first or second best road record in the league. We’re starting to get people healthy, but we made a plan last summer that we were going to spend much of our cap space and hope that the team would play at a high level and that we wouldn’t have to be active at the trade deadline."
Despite experiencing a number of injuries in the first part of 2011, the Red Wings have played at a high level like Holland said. Now that they are getting much healthier, depth is improving quite a bit. Once Johan Franzen returns following the birth of his first child and Brian Rafalski comes back from back spasms, head coach Mike Babcock will have an overflow of talent. That means that players normally in the lineup could be healthy scratches, which is always a sign of excellent depth.
The Red Wings have been somewhat inconsistent lately, seemingly playing great for a few games and then struggling for a couple, but in general they have been very good this season. Although a number of moves could be made to mix things up, there really is no need to with the way they are playing and with the amount of talent on the team. At this point it looks like the Red Wings can win another Stanley Cup with the players already on the team, and besides, it's more fun watching the rest of the Western Conference make a slew of moves as they try to keep pace with top teams like the Red Wings and Vancouver Canucks.
