So after all that…it’s Tomas Nosek

 

By @MichaelCaples –

Father’s Day came with a stressful Sunday morning for Red Wings fans, as many of the Hockeytown faithful cried foul.

Petr Mrazek exposed instead of Jimmy Howard for the NHL Expansion Draft?

How could you possibly expose a 25-year-old netminder instead of the 33-year-old making far more money?

Soon, however, the reporting and the social media chatter was that Mrazek needs an attitude adjustment (and MiHockey has confirmed that with sources, as well).

Not going to lie – for a while, I thought Riley Sheahan was on his way to Vegas.

Instead, it’s Tomas Nosek. All 17 NHL games of him.

Sure, he’s been hyped up by Red Wings management, and he’s shown flashes of skill both in Grand Rapids and in his call-ups to the Wings.

Nosek surely won’t be playing a starring role for the Las Vegas Golden Knights, however.

As the night went on, the pick looks better and better, as teams forked over draft picks and players to protect big-time prospects. The Red Wings lost a forward they found as an undrafted free-agent with one NHL goal to his name.

Ken Holland announcing that the Wings would stand pat and make no trades prior to the Expansion Draft seemed scary at the time, as both Mrazek and Jared Coreau sat vulnerable to Vegas’ selection process.

Now, Detroit has retained all its assets moving into the NHL Draft and the offseason.

Cap relief would have been nice, had the Golden Knights decided they needed someone off of the Wings’ final NHL roster from April.

The Nosek selection does show the situation facing the Red Wings – Vegas didn’t really want anybody. There were 22 players available for Vegas GM George McPhee to pick through, and he took a guy who was a ‘maybe’ for next year’s Detroit roster.

The names available were substantial – at least for the Red Wings’ roster. Mrazek, Coreau, Xavier Ouellet, Ryan Sproul, Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson, Riley Sheahan, Darren Helm, Luke Glendening, those are all players who were permanent figures in the Wings’ line-up last year at one time or another, and Vegas didn’t want them.

Most teams were in the position of losing a notable piece of their competitive roster or losing a top prospect. The Wings weren’t in either of those, which is a problem.

The Expansion Draft has certainly kicked off an offseason that could feature a lot of fireworks – it will be interesting to see what happens in Hockeytown. Something needs to if there is to be playoff games at Little Caesars Arena in the fall.