Wings hope for 'boost' in playoff push by trading for Petr Mrazek, Craig Smith

Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News on Mar 7, 2025

Published in Hockey

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WASHINGTON, D.C.— The Red Wings didn't do everything they wanted to do before Friday's NHL trade deadline, but they're hoping they took care of some issues.

The Wings traded forward Joe Veleno to Chicago in exchange for forward Craig Smith and former Wings goaltender Petr Mrazek. Smith and Mrazek will be in uniform Monday in Ottawa.

General manager Steve Yzerman was pleased to get this deal done to try to keep the Wings competitive in the Eastern Conference wild-card chase; the Wings are one point behind.

"I wouldn't say we did everything we wanted to do, but we had areas we wanted to address," said Yzerman in a Zoom call with media late Friday afternoon. "We had a tough stretch recently (with injuries) but we're still in the thick of things for those wild-card spots. We still want to give ourselves the best chance we can to compete for a playoff spot.

"We're hoping Petr can come in and give us a boost in net and Craig provide a little bit of offense throughout the lineup."

The Wings lost Christian Fischer on waivers Thursday, and newly-recalled Carter Mazur was injured on his second shift in the NHL, making the Wings thin among forwards. The Wings recalled Dominik Shine from Grand Rapids, adding another forward.

Mrazek, 33, was a 2010 fifth-round draft pick of the Wings. He was traded to Philadelphia in 2018, he and went on to Carolina, Toronto and Chicago before being reacquired Friday by the Wings.

In Chicago this season, Mrazek was 10-19-2 in 33 appearances, with a 3.46 goals-against average and .890 save percentage. Mrazek has one more year left, with a $4.25 million annual average value, which attracted the Wings considering the robust, expensive goaltender market lately and the fact the free-agent market for goalies is expected to be slim.

The Wings will go with three goaltenders — Mrazek, Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon — the rest of the season. Talbot has one year left on his contract, and Lyon can be a free agent this summer.

"We'll keep three on our roster and see how is plays out," Yzerman said. "How many games does everyone play? Not really sure. We still are trying to do our best to make the playoffs and we felt hanging onto the three, we still have depth."

Smith (6-foot-1, 203-pounds), 35, has nine goals and 16 points in 40 games with the Blackhawks. In his career, Smith has 220 goals and 230 assists (450 points) in 968 games.

"Craig has a history of being a guy who can shoot the puck in the net a little bit and we can use that a little bit," Yzerman said.

Smith is on a one-year contract worth $1 million and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Veleno, 25, a former 2018 first-round Wings draft pick, never fulfilled his potential. Veleno had five goals and five assists for 10 points this season in 56 games and has been an occasional healthy scratch this season.

Veleno has one more year left on his contract at $2.275 million.

The injury to center Andrew Copp (upper body) — Copp will miss the remainder of the season — put a hole at that position, but the Wings weren't in position to acquire the higher profile centers available on the market.

"Players that have short term on their contracts, and are younger and going to be part of this group for more than one or two years, I'd be open to doing that type of deal," said Yzerman, of trading away draft picks or prospects. "That type of deal wasn't available. Pending UFAs that teams were selling off, we didn't even get into those discussions.

"Where we're at, and we'd love to make the playoffs, but to get into that rental thing and giving up our first-round draft picks and all and what we consider our top prospects, we'd all agree whether we like it or not being in that situation, that's not the thing to do right now.

"I understand the frustration or impatience. This is a hockey market and people know the game and want the team to do well. I would say we did what we thought we could to give us a better chance to make the playoffs."

Yzerman is pleased with the turnaround of the team since replacing Derek Lalonde with Todd McLellan as head coach on Dec. 26.

"Pleased for the most part with how the team has responded," Yzerman said. "Coming out of the (4 Nations) break here, a little bit we've lost some steam. But I'm very pleased. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't make the change just to give us a little bump. Todd is a very good coach and he's going to take this team ... he'll do a good job moving forward with us."

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