Okay, now I’m only half kidding when I say that Steve Yzerman should call up Ken Holland to see if he’ll also take the likes of Justin Abdelkader and Darren Helm…
Anyways no real surprise here that Yzerman ultimately decided to deal Andreas Athanasiou. I guess the most surprising thing about it was Holland coming in at the last minute to steal AA away from Columbus who seemed like there where crossing the T’s and dotting the lower case J’s on the trade paperwork.
Nonetheless, over the course of the season, it was becoming more and more apparent that Athanasiou wasn’t going to be part of the team’s long-term plans. He and his $3 million dollar salary are set to expire at the end of the season when in which he will become one of the many RFA’s the Wings will have to contend with.
As far as the rest of the deal goes, Detroit also sent left winger Ryan Kuffner and will receive two-second picks (2020, 2021) from the Oilers as well as center Sam Gagner who is set to come off this books this summer.
Again though, Holland, dude, Abdelkader? Niesen? Helm? They could all be yours for nothing!