Vanek traded from Detroit to Florida

National Hockey League teams have until 3 p.m. ET Wednesday to make trades. McIlrath will now have a chance to be a big part of that future.

Vanek was sent to Florida by the Detroit Red Wings, in exchange for defenceman Dylan McIlrath and a conditional third-round draft pick. “I wasn’t told anything”, Hansen said of the mid-game trade. “We didn’t leave any crumbs on the table”. At the cost of a third-rounder, Dale Tallon did well to get depth at a low cost. However, Vanek has played on four different teams since being traded by the Sabres during the 2013-14 season.

McIlrath meanwhile only saw action this year in five games for Florida, and could be given a bigger and better opportunity with the Red Wings. “It’s the reality of professional sports”.

For now, let’s have a moment of silence to officially mourn the ending of one of sport’s great runs as the Detroit Red Wings have thrown in the towel on the season.

“We’ve had a tough year, I think for a variety of reasons”, Holland said.

Vanek is in the final year of his contract for $2.6 million and will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. We’ve been trading assets. We know what the standings look like and we’re not out of it by any means.

“There’s a price to pay (for winning)”, Holland said. “And now we’ve got 11 draft picks in this draft, we’ve got nine for next year, and we’ve got some young people coming through the system”. The GM has had a brutal tendency to overpay “his guys” when it comes time to re-sign them – see Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Luke Glendening and Danny DeKeyser – and it seemed like he was ready to do the same thing for Smith. “We made the decision in the last few days that if I could get some picks for our players I was going to make it happen”.

In 2002, they had 10 picks, three of which were Jiri Hudler (58th overall), Valtteri Filppula (95th) and Jonathan Ericsson (291st). Sure. Is it also possible that Ken Holland has dug himself too deep of a hole that he needs to dig his way out of?

“They’re obviously really good players”, Zetterberg said.

Feb 15, 2017; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Red Wings left wing Henrik Zetterberg (40) and defenseman Niklas Kronwall (55) display a patch on their sweaters for owner Mike Ilitch in the third period against the St. Louis Blues at Joe Louis Arena.