Trading a young goaltender with a terrific track record, albeit a smaller sample size, is rare in the NHL. It’s even more unusual when he was a finalist for rookie of the year honors less than one month ago.
Acquiring Alex Nedeljkovic Thursday was a brilliant move by Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman – and a puzzling decision by the Carolina Hurricanes.
All it cost was a third-round pick in this year’s draft (No. 94) and the rights to unrestricted free-agent goalie Jonathan Bernier.
“We have high hopes for Alex based on his performance this year in Carolina, a younger guy we feel had a lot of upside,” Yzerman said. “We’re pretty excited about it. Everyone in our organization is familiar with him from his local ties. We know his character, his work ethic, his competitiveness. Watching him play this year we felt it was a good opportunity to get somewhat of a younger goaltender with still some upside and can help us win more games.”
Nedeljkovic, 25, appeared in 23 regular season games, posting a 15-5-3 record, 1.90 goals-against average and .932 save percentage. He was named a finalist for the Calder Trophy, which was awarded to Kirill Kaprizov of Minnesota. Nedeljkovic also performed well in the playoffs, with a 2.17 GAA and .920 save percentage in nine games (3-4).
The Red Wings signed the restricted free agent to a two-year contract with a $3 million cap hit.
Carolina reportedly was concerned Nedeljkovic would be awarded much more in arbitration.
The Red Wings will pair him with veteran Thomas Greiss, who has one year remaining on his contract.
“The kids in our system are probably a ways off from playing in the NHL and we thought with Thomas Greiss under contract for one more season, we tried to bring in a younger goaltender that has potential to be our starter for a number of years,” Yzerman said. “He’s relatively inexperienced at the NHL level but we think he’s got real good potential.
“He can play for a long time. Prime years. We think he’s at a good age that he can develop with us, our core of young players and be a good goaltender for a long time.”
Nedeljkovic has many local ties. He played three seasons with the OHL Plymouth Whalers and one year with the Flint Firebirds. He played youth hockey in metro Detroit for Belle Tire and was a teammate of Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin.
Yzerman on Friday dealt a second-round pick and right wing Richard Panik for defenseman Nick Leddy.
“We have so many picks, at some point we need to put players on the ice,” Yzerman said. “In our position, it’s difficult to get those real impact free agents. The way you can get some players on reasonable contracts is via trade as we did with Marc Staal last year and Nick Leddy this year. We’re trying to surround our younger players with good players to help them develop.
“Somewhere along the way you balance trying to be a little bit more competitive with rebuilding. Having so many draft picks, we can use the odd one to try to improve our team for the short term.”
