DESTINATION PETRY: THE DETROIT RED WINGS

9 years ago

We’re one month away from the NHL trade deadline and the deals are picking up in pace. The Edmonton Oilers have made only one deal—a major one, David Perron to Pittsburgh—and will make at least one more (or so it seems) before time expires March 2nd. Jeff Petry is leaving town.

DETROIT WHEELS

Ken Holland and the Red Wings spent years and years building and making few rental moves.

Holland: “I’m not doing any more rentals,
because Detroit’s system is about getting players from Europe, college
and junior into minor pro and then you’ve got to get them into the NHL.
If I acquire rental players I don’t have enough picks—like when we went
to the draft in 1999 in Boston with no first pick, no second pick, no
third pick and no fourth pick.” Source: Behind the Moves

When they exited their third “Golden Era” Detroit started to add via deadline style trades. Kyle Quincey
came back that way in Feb ’12, the team dealt Calle Jarnkrok, Patrick
Eaves and a third-round pick for David Legwand last in March a year ago.

Jeff Petry is a very good fit this deadline for the Red Wings in several ways:

He’s a righty and Detroit’s defense (and team) is the ‘Leftorium’ brought to life.
He is a capable NHL defenseman who can play in all disciplines
Detroit probably has as good a chance as any team to land the player in free agency (he’s from Ann Arbor, Michigan and his father was a successful pitcher for the Detroit Tigers)

WHY DO THEY NEED PETRY?

Since they’re all lefthanded, I think the easiest way to view the pairings is via the Vollman sledgehammer. All of the bubbles are blue—Detroit is an exceptional possession team—but the heavy lifting belongs to Kronwall and Ericsson. The secondary pairing, Quincey and young DeKeyser, are facing easier (but significant) opposition and the others are getting a zone start push and facing the soft parade.

If Jeff Petry was a Red Wing, where would he play?

Kronwall (who leads the team’s blue in TOI, 23:36) and Ericsson play 17 minutes a night at evens and another 2.5 on the PK. Kronwall’s 3 minutes on the power play have been very effective (1-13-14) so Petry might be able to give him some time off on the PK.
Petry might be able to form an effective third pairing with (I’d guess) Brendan Smith.

POSSESSION STATS—CORSI

This is crazy good, everyone is 51.5 or better and the top four (tough minutes) blue are excellent. Detroit could probably head into the playoffs with this group, if they were all healthy and experienced:

Jakub Kindl has an elbow problem and hasn’t played since December 27.
Xaxier Ouellet is 21 years old and played 19 minutes (-3) against Tampa Bay.

I think we can safely slot Petry with Brendan Smith on a third pairing, with Kindl and Ouellet as support.

RED WINGS SUGGESTED PAIRINGS

Kronwall—Eriksson
DeKeyser—Quincey
Smith—Petry

The addition of Petry gives Detroit six solid options and allows them to give Kronwall less time on the PK (should they choose to do so).

WHAT ABOUT RETURN?

Jim Matheson of the EJ, still connected after all these years, mentioned Ryan Sproul as a possible option and also threw the name of Tomas Jurco as a target (in a bigger deal). Source.

Signing Jeff Petry is, as always, the better plan.