Something happened!

It was just announced that the Detroit Red Wings have traded Petr Mrazek to the Philadelphia Flyers for a pair of picks.

It’s also worth noting that the Wings are retaining 50% of Mrazek’s salary, per Craig Custance.

Is this a good return? Frankly, it depends on what the conditions are. But I don’t think Holland was going to get more out of Hextall than this. They started at a 3rd round pick in 2018 and settled on a 4th rounder in 2018 and a 3rd rounder in 2019 so it’s more than what was initially asked for. At the end of the day, the return is going to be deemed good or bad based on how Mrazek performs from here on out (which is basically true of any trade).

Don’t worry about the salary retention. Because it’s the last year of Mrazek’s deal, that is not going to hurt the Red Wings at all going into this Summer’s RFA negotiations.

Next steps for the Red Wings are to call up Jared Coreau from Grand Rapids so that he can back up Jimmy Howard against the Predators tomorrow night. Howard should be able to rest a little easier now that this goalie drama is over. The Wings have put their weight behind Howard. He is their undisputed starter for the rest of this year and next. What happens beyond that is still to be seen.

We will be sure to keep you updated on the conditions of the picks as the news becomes available.

The conditions of the trade have been announced, courtesy of the Bobfather!

Let’s break this down into something that is easy to ingest.

Condition 1: If Flyers make the playoffs and Mrazek wins 5 regular season games, the 2018 4th round pick becomes a 2018 3rd round pick.

Condition 2: If Flyers make it to the Conference Finals and Mrazek wins six playoff games, the 2018 3rd round pick becomes a 2018 2nd round pick.

Condition 3: If Flyers re-sign Mrazek next season, Detroit gets Philadelphia’s 3rd round pick in 2019.

What’s good about this is that it’s very possible that the 4th rounder in 2018 becomes a 3rd rounder. Mrazek needs to log five wins for the Flyers and the team needs to make the playoffs. At this point, I’m pretty confident that this team is playoff-bound, but that can change very easily in the Metropolitan Division. Can the Flyers make it to the Conference Finals, though? That one is a bit of a long shot, especially if Mrazek needs to win six playoff games. I doubt that second condition comes through, which means the Wings get a 3rd round pick out of the Flyers in 2018. It’s not a bad return for what Mrazek is valued at around the league.

As for the last condition, don’t get your hopes up on Philadelphia re-signing Mrazek. Per CapFriendly, Mrazek requires a qualifying offer at his current salary, which is $4.15-million. Though we may all disagree on the return that Detroit got for Mrazek, I think we can all agree that he’s not currently worth $4.15-million per year. So don’t count on that 2019 3rd rounder coming through. What’s more likely is that Mrazek will hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent on July 1st. Who knows, maybe the Wings will take another run at him at a lower salary? I wouldn’t be opposed to that, but let’s see where this roster stands on July 1 before committing to the goalie that never panned out for us.