Does Trading For Jacob Trouba Make Sense?

It’s been rumored for a long time that the Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba could be featured in a trade to the Detroit Red Wings.

Trouba grew up in the Greater Detroit Area. He hails from Rochester, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit). In addition, he played in the Compuware Hockey program (based out of Plymouth Township, Michigan) as a child. After his success in Compuware and his time with the US National Team Development Program, he committed to the University of Michigan and played one season for the Wolverines before packing his bags for Winnipeg.

Since going to Winnipeg, there have been rumours around his interest in playing in Canada. It appears that Trouba hasn’t enjoyed his time playing north of the border and the he would prefer to play closer to home. While we can’t confirm the rumours, it does seem odd that Trouba still hasn’t signed a long-term contract with the Jets. Since signing his first entry-level contract, he’s signed two additional contracts for shorter increments of time. Last summer, he signed a “bridge” deal of one year worth an average annual value of 5.5 million USD.

Trouba is now a pending restricted free agent and hockey fans are once again seeing the Trouba trade rumours back in the news. If Trouba demands another bridge deal, that might force Cheveldayoff to finally pull the trigger. If the Jets can’t sign Trouba long-term, you’d have to expect him to be gone at some point this summer.

Trouba is a great defenseman. He would be a top-2 defenseman for the Detroit Red Wings. But, does a trade for him make sense?

The Red Wings would have to cough up quite a few assets to land Trouba. He’s not going to be cheap. Cheveldayoff is likely to ask Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman for the kitchen sink. You have to expect that Cheveldayoff will inquire about the Red Wings’ first round draft pick and/or prospects such as Joe Veleno, Jared McIssac and Filip Larsson.

Before Yzerman ultimately decides on if he should cough up some assets to land Trouba, he should watch some game tape and verify that Trouba is the defenseman that truly meets his needs.

I’m confident that Yzerman will see from the game tape that adding Trouba makes sense, but not at a high cost. If you look below at the visuals (created by Sean Tierney, data from Corey Sznajder and EvolvingWild), you’ll see that Trouba is an offensive threat. He’s someone who the Red Wings can rely on for their special teams play. Trouba is someone who is capable of creating scoring chance after scoring chance and he’s someone you can trust to get the puck out of the zone unharmed. But, he isn’t a break-up specialist nor is he someone who can be viewed as a carry-in specialist.

The Red Wings truly need more of a two-way defenseman and Trouba isn’t going to fill that void. He’s an outstanding shot creator and someone who would be an asset on the power-play. But, there is more to the game of hockey to shot creation. You need to get the puck out of your opponents hands and into the offensive zone.

The Red Wings had a couple of break-up specialists and carry-in specialists last season, but they also had a few defensemen who proved to be pretty ineffective. With Trouba’s playing style as more as offensive-minded defenseman, I’m not sure that it makes sense to give up the farm for him.