Detroit Red Wings Trade Jake Walman to San Jose Sharks

Detroit Red Wings Trade Jake Walman to San Jose Sharks

The Detroit Red Wings have more at stake in the 2024 offseason than almost any other NHL team. Steve Yzerman will enter his sixth season running the Red Wings in 2024-25. The team has not reached the playoffs since 2016. They came close this season, missing the playoffs via tiebreaker. They’re a young team, but not that young. Pressure is starting to build.

So, for the second time in the last 16 months, the Red Wings moved on from a defenseman once thought to be a key part of their future. Yzerman traded Filip Hronek to the Vancouver Canucks at the 2023 trade deadline along with a fourth-round pick in exchange for a first and second-rounder last year. Hronek received an eight-year, $58 million extension a week ago after handling top-pair duties with Michigan native Quinn Hughes for a Canucks team that reached Game 7 of the second round. But, perhaps prospects Axel Sandin Pellikka and Felix Nilsson will develop and make the move a win for Detroit.

There’s no such hope for the move Yzerman made on Tuesday. After completing a prospect-for-prospect trade earlier in the day with the Nashville Predators that also landed Detroit the No. 53 pick in this year’s draft, Yzerman flipped the pick along with Jake Walman to the San Jose Sharks for… nothing. Well, technically future considerations, but in all likelihood, nothing.

It’s stunning considering where Walman was coming into the 2023-24 season. Acquired as a bit of an afterthought alongside Oskar Sundqvist and a 2023 second for Nick Leddy and Luke Witkowski at the 2022 trade deadline, Walman quickly made a name for himself in the Motor City. Part of that was his unique flare after scoring big goals. But there was a lot to celebrate for Walman in his first full season in Detroit. Driven by stellar defensive metrics, Walman’s market value at the end of the 2022-23 campaign was $10.7 million, according to The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn’s model. He was Detroit’s most valuable player and worth over $4 million more than everyone other than Dylan Larkin.

Walman was stapled at the hip to Detroit’s golden goose on the backend, Moritz Seider, throughout 2023-24. The duo struggled together, collecting 43% of the expected goals and were outscored 43-37 at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick. As a result, Walman’s market value plummeted to $0.8 million (the lowest value on the model). The first year of his three-year, $10.2 million extension signed last summer didn’t go as planned. However, the extremely difficult usage the pair faced may be the culprit for their struggles. For reference, Seider’s market value tumbled from $6.5 million to $3.8 million himself.

The Sharks are ripe for taking on reclamation projects like Walman. They made a similar move with the Dallas Stars last week when they acquired former first-round pick Ty Dellandrea. Getting a draft pick makes this an even easier decision for Sharks GM Mike Grier. Walman is just 28, so perhaps he can be a bridge to the team’s young talent. Maybe San Jose can repair his value and flip him for more assets, similar to what the Arizona Coyotes did with another Detroit defender, Shayne Gostisbehere.

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Either way, it’s a smart gamble for San Jose to take. The worst case for the Sharks is a modest contract on their books for two years where they don’t plan to contend. As for Detroit, it’s a steep price for a once-promising player. But after last year’s big swings weren’t enough to get the team back to the playoffs, maybe Yzerman felt this trade was a necessary evil to allow him to take another shot.

League source tells me about Walman trade: “Yzerman needed cap space…greater opportunity for Walman.”

I’m guessing this is a prelude to a big splash by Stevie Y soon

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) June 25, 2024

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