Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

As trade deadline nears, the Wings are ‘on the bubble’ (with lots of other teams)

Ken Holland

Detroit general manager Ken Holland has a dilemma. Like any GM, he’d like to improve his team before Wednesday’s trade deadline. However...

“Unfortunately, we’re on the bubble,” Holland told ESPN.com. “It’s hard to risk that if we miss the playoffs, to trade a high draft pick or a real top prospect for not even a playoff run. At the same time, we feel that the kids that we’ve got -- Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan, Jurco -- they have really made a positive impact on our hockey team. Looks like they’re going to be around here for a while and they should be getting better.”

The Red Wings aren’t the only ones with a dilemma. Per Sports Club Stats, there are 16 teams that could be called “on the bubble,” starting with the Kings (at 91.8% to make the playoffs) all the way down to the Jets (11.7%).

Detroit is at 49.9% following last night’s overtime win in Montreal.

Of course, while Holland may be loathe to roll the dice on a pending unrestricted free agent (a.k.a. a rental), he could still pull off a deal for a player with term remaining on his contract. Not surprisingly given yesterday’s report, there’s plenty of speculation about Michigan native Ryan Kesler possibly being traded to the Wings, though we tend to wonder if Holland isn’t all stocked up on injury-prone forwards.