Two years after acquiring goal-scorer Jakub Vrana, Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings are done with him.
Detroit has traded Vrana to the Blues for a seventh-round pick in 2025 and AHL forward Dylan McLaughlin ahead of Friday's 3 p.m. trade deadline. It amounts to a salary dump for the Red Wings, even as they'll retain half of the remaining money on Vrana's $15.75 million contract that runs through next season.
Vrana looked like a piece of Detroit's future as recently as this season. His knack for scoring goals -- 21 of them through his first 39 games with the Wings after arriving via the Anthony Mantha trade at the 2021 deadline -- appealed to an organization with a need for difference-makers up front.
But Vrana just couldn't stay on the ice, first missing most of last season due to shoulder surgery and then missing two-plus months this season as he treated an off-ice issue in the NHL's player assistance program. When he returned, he couldn't crack the Red Wings' lineup and was ultimately waived by Yzerman and sent to the AHL after going unclaimed.
Vrana, 27, had just one goal in five games for Detroit this season. By trading him instead of buying him out, the club won't have his money on the books beyond next season.
The trade also creates more flexibility this summer for Yzerman and the Red Wings, who already dealt Filip Hronek and Tyler Bertuzzi this week and now have more than $30 million in cap space entering the offseason.
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