The Red Wings made two additions to their roster at the trade deadline, betting on a familiar face and a new top four defenseman getting them out of their near decade long playoff drought. As the dust settles around a team still trying to find their way to the dance with a pair of new faces added to the mix, we know a little more now about what can be truly expected of the Red Wings.

 

Truth 1: Deadline day not as important as what’s next

Even before the Larkin injury, how the Red Wings lineup react to whatever happened at the deadline is more important than any moves actually made by management. The Red Wings need to break the formula that they’ve been playing with over the last two months.

They get behind in the first, gain momentum in the second, and they either give up a stupid penalty and/or goal in the third and lose, or they take it to overtime and from there it’s a coin flip on whether they win or lose.

Adding Justin Faulk should help to relieve some of the pressure in the Red Wings top four, and his experience on the blueline is much needed in a group that doesn’t have more than one night-in night-out defenseman over the age of 30 as they gear up for the playoffs.

Obviously the Red Wings could use some more offense from their forward group, and more specifically in the top six, but getting back David Perron feels like a value in more ways than one. He was a solid contributor for the Red Wings two years ago, mentoring a couple of players just earning their stripes in Lucas Raymond and Mo Seider.

Perron’s character fit has already been much discussed, but more intriguing (to me, at least) is what his impact sharing the ice with, say, Marco Kasper and Emmitt Finnie will be. The two youngsters have been creating some dangerous chances on the third line in recent games, and Perron would bring some size and chippiness to the wily pair.

 

Lie: The Red Wings should have done (a lot) more

This was a strange deadline where for the most part, with a “rich get richer” theme that muddied a lot of the waters over the last few days. However, one thing that became abundantly clear was that the cost of adding a top forward to the group this year just didn’t make sense.

The Colorado Avalanche added two players who likely will be playing on their third line to close out the year, and both of them cost individually cost more than what Steve Yzerman would’ve been willing to part with.

“It’s funny, we all value players differently. We’re all in different situations as far as where we are and our expectations.” Said Yzerman, “Some deals, you kinda, we all might scratch your head at… It’s a funny time.”

Yzerman still managed to find value in a very competitive market, though, and his trade for Faulk should help patch the gaping void on the right side of the defense. Detroit managed to navigate the deadline and come out without giving up a king’s ransom, and they added value in the places they needed to.

 

Truth 2: Gibson worth his weight in gold

Lost in the noise and excitement of the trade deadline right now might be the fact that at this time last year, the Red Wings added Petr Mrazek to finish their season, and then promptly shipped him off in a trade for John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks.

Perhaps no trade has had a bigger ripple effect on a subsequent season for the Red Wings since… I honestly wouldn’t know when. Yzerman acquired Gibson by trading away Mrazek, a 2027 second round pick, and this year’s fourth round pick.

Considering that no starting netminders were traded at the deadline and the cost of doing business ranged from three second picks to whatever first round pick teams had on hand in addition to the players being moved, getting Gibson in the offseason feels like Anaheim might’ve gotten fleeced. Hopefully the team has done right by him by adding the right bodies in front so that he doesn’t have to stand on his head to get them a win.