By Pierre LeBrun, Fluto Shinzawa, Max Bultman and Eric Duhatschek
The Detroit Red Wings have traded ahead Tyler Bertuzzi to the Boston Bruins, the groups stated Thursday. Here’s what you have to know:
- Detroit will obtain a 2024 first-round draft choose (top-10 protected) and a 2025 fourth-round choose in change for buying and selling Bertuzzi.
- The Red Wings will retain 50 % of Bertuzzi’s wage.
- Bertuzzi, 28, has 14 factors (4 targets, 10 assists) in 29 video games this season.
- The Bruins are 47-8-5 this season and sit in first place within the Atlantic Division.
The commerce deadline is Friday at 3 p.m. ET: Follow right here for reside updates.
Why the Bruins are including Bertuzzi
Whether Bertuzzi was within the Bruins’ preliminary plans is unknown. It could also be, although, that accidents to Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno made the Bruins improvise. Hall is not going to play Thursday due to a lower-body damage that saved him out the final two video games. Foligno limped out of Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday after being hit by Nikita Zadorov.
The left-shot Bertuzzi offers the Bruins insurance coverage pending the standing of Hall and Foligno. — Shinzawa
Next for Boston: A salary-cap transfer
The Bruins must execute a transaction at the moment to realize cap compliance. They are projected to be over the cap, even with Detroit retaining 50 % of Bertuzzi’s wage. They might place Hall ($6 million common annual worth) on long-term injured reserve. The severity of Hall’s lower-body damage, nevertheless, is unknown.
The Bruins might additionally discover a taker for Mike Reilly ($3 million AAV), who’s at present buried within the AHL. — Shinzawa
Why the Red Wings made the commerce
Bertuzzi grew from a scrappy second-round choose right into a core piece for the Red Wings all through their rebuild, scoring 30 targets final season. But he’s a pending unrestricted free agent and the Red Wings moved now to ensure they acquired one thing for one among their greatest gamers. The 2024 first-rounder (top-10 protected) could possibly be extra attention-grabbing than it appears to be like at first blush, coming from a Bruins crew that has some key gamers whose futures are unsure past this season.
As with the Islanders choose acquired by way of Vancouver, it stays to be seen whether or not the Red Wings preserve the choose or transfer it, however by doing this deal they ensure they didn’t lose Bertuzzi for nothing and get an honest return within the course of. — Bultman
The Red Wings are actually sellers. So what’s subsequent?
Suffice to say Detroit’s administration has pulled the chute on the crew’s current playoff push. The query is, how far does this promoting go? Bottom-six forwards Oskar Sundqvist and Pius Suter are additionally pending UFAs who might assist contenders. Jakub Vrana stays a risk to be dealt. There are definitely extra balls within the air for the Red Wings with 29 hours earlier than the deadline.
And on the ice, eyes now flip to how the locker room will react to seeing two rebuild constructing blocks shipped out in a 24-hour span following a pair of disheartening losses in Ottawa. Last yr, Detroit struggled after one other promoting commerce deadline sapped morale. — Bultman
GO DEEPER
What does Red Wings’ catastrophe in Ottawa imply for his or her playoff hopes, commerce deadline?
Scouting report
Bertuzzi has performed his whole seven-year profession with the Red Wings after they chose him within the second spherical of the 2013 NHL Draft.
Coming out of the All-Star break, Bertuzzi lastly scored his second purpose of an injury-filled season — after which his ice time elevated dramatically, a sign the Red Wings could possibly be making an attempt to showcase him. The precedence for Detroit was at all times to attempt to get Bertuzzi, a pending unrestricted free agent, signed to a contract extension. Failing that, it needed to see what it might get for a hard-nosed winger who will drive to the web and final yr produced 62 factors in 68 video games, second greatest on the crew.
Bertuzzi has seen restricted motion this yr. He broke one hand on Oct. 15, then shortly after returning to the Red Wings lineup after lacking 13 video games, he broke the opposite hand and solely simply returned to motion within the second week of January. Bertuzzi earns an affordable $4.75 million within the remaining yr of his deal. — Duhatschek
Required studying
(Photo: David Kirouac / USA Today)
