The Tough Call

The Detroit Red Wings are in a tough place for a team that sits second in the Atlantic division and 8th overall in the NHL. In most cases when a team sits this high in the league very little it done to improve the team come trade deadline time, its usually a small move to get a veteran forward or defenceman to help boost the overall depth of the team, only when it comes to the Wings this year they could be looking to do a little more. The Wings are a team with lots of good defence but only 1 or maybe 2 guys who stand out, the rest are questionable on a game to game basis not to say these players have no value its just their play tends to fluctuate from exceptional to just okay. This is okay if these guys are your number 4-6 guys but the problem with the Wings is that they rely on these guys as their top players. So how do you fix this problem, you make the tough call. When I say the tough call I mean trading former all star goaltender Jimmy Howard. Howard is 31 and has under performed for most of this season, its even gone as far as him loosing his starting job to young up and comer Petr Mrazek. Howard has a .904 save percentage this season with a 2.89 goals against average in 20 games, this is well below the expected production of a guy who is getting paid 6 million a season. Where this trade could work is with the Vancouver Canucks a team that at time has struggled with both offence and goaltending and with Hamhuis being available from Vancouver I believe he should be the Wings #1 priority. First off Hamhuis makes about half of what Howard makes which allows cap room for Detroit. Where the problem lies with this trade is that Vancouver needs offence, now they cold settle simply for a goaltender but this also causes a problem for Detroit in that they need a right handed shot from the point and regardless of how solid Hamhuis is he shoots left. Now the other tough question is should the Wings trade Howard I mean sure he has under performed but he is a former all star and was the third goalie for the USA Olympic team at one point so maybe the Wings should hold on to Howard at least for one more season. At least that how I see it.