Red Wings Deal Defenseman Walman to Sharks

In the second of a pair of trades on Tuesday, the Detroit Red Wings sent defenseman Jake Walman to the San Jose Sharks.

UPDATE: The #RedWings today traded a 2nd round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft (originally Tampa’s) and Jake Walman to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for future considerations. pic.twitter.com/14i7Pak0VP

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) June 25, 2024

The move was a salary dump, with a second-round pick attached to Walman and nothing coming back to Detroit in return.

That second-rounder had been acquired earlier in the day when the Wings sent prospect defenseman Andrew Gibson to the Nashville Predators in return for the pick and the signing rights to forward Jesse Kiiskinen.

As such, the net result is Walman and Gibson for Kiiskinen, with Detroit getting out from under the final two years of Walman’s $3.4 million salary.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman notes that the Red Wings were “desperate to move money and clear space” on defense.  I’m having a hard time seeing where that desperation comes from.  Unless there is another move coming quickly, the Wings had plenty of time to figure this out.  Even if there is a big-money move coming on the heels of this, teams can exceed the salary cap by 10% over the summer.

Attaching a pick to Justin Holl’s $3.4 million cap hit I get.  Attaching it to Jake Walman’s I don’t.

Pending some other domino yet to fall, I find it hard to believe that moving Walman was a good idea and that paying to do so was necessary.  Obviously I’m not GM Steve Yzerman.  I don’t know the plan and I don’t know what other options he tried.  Hence waiting for another domino to fall.