A day after trading one former member of the Red Wings' core, Steve Yzerman has traded another.
Detroit is sending Tyler Bertuzzi to the Bruins in exchange for a first-round pick in 2024 and a fourth-rounder in 2025.
Bertuzzi, who scored 30 goals last season but has been hindered this season by injuries, is a pending unrestricted free agent. While the Red Wings had explored an extension with the 28-year-old winger, talks never got very far.
With the trade deadline on Friday and Detroit's playoff hopes hanging by a thread, Yzerman decided to cash in his asset rather than risk losing Bertuzzi for nothing this summer.
It's the second major trade in the past 24 hours for the Red Wings, who dealt defenseman Filip Hronek to the Canucks on Wednesday for a pair of high draft picks. The moves come after Yzerman watched his team get crushed in two crucial games in Ottawa this week just when it looked like Detroit was making a move in the East.
The Wings, who haven't made the playoffs since 2016, enter play Thursday five points behind the Penguins and six points behind the Islanders for one of the two Eastern Conference wild card spots, though they do have four games in hand on New York. There's also a logjam of teams ahead of them.
Bertuzzi missed 29 games earlier this season due to separate hand injuries and has just four goals to his name, a year after scoring at a 36-goal pace.
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