Red Wings sign Trevor Daley to 3-year, $9-million deal

Well, there it is. The Detroit Red Wings have signed defenceman Trevor Daley to a 3-year deal, worth $3M-year AAV.

Multiple reports had come out earlier in the week that the Red Wings were in contention for Daley’s services.

Then, very early this morning, this cryptic tweet came out from Bob McKenzie:

A 33-year old defenceman from Toronto, Daley had played in the Dallas Stars organization from 2003-15 before being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Patrick Sharp trade in July 2015. He then was dealt to Pittsburgh in December of the same year in a one-for-one deal for Rob Scuderi.

He won his first Stanley Cup this past year with Pittsburgh, playing 21 games in the playoffs, picking up 1 goal and four assists.

Known in the past for being a bit of an offensive d-man, Daley’s 19 points this season would have been second amongst Wings defencemen, although that isn’t saying a whole lot. However, on a team that is already not great defensively, this signing doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Take a look at the final column in his HERO chart, which tallies shot suppression.

Daley will be 34 by the time the season is less than a week old, and is probably closer to the end of his NHL career than the start of it. Expecting him to be anything more than he’s been the last few seasons is just not a thing that’s likely to happen.

He probably slots in on the Red Wings second pairing, and in the process bumps either Xavier Ouellet, Nick Jensen, or Ryan Sproul into the 7th man role. Ken Holland’s asset management in its most pure form right there. Maybe they give him bottom pairing minutes, but I can’t really understand why they wouldn’t just promote someone internally.

The Wings didn’t really need to sign anyone this free agency, and they ended up with one of the worst defensive players possible. Whatever helps the tank, I guess?