Red Wings trade Jake Walman, second-round pick to Sharks in stunner

It wasn't long ago that Jake Walman was a key piece of the Red Wings' future. Now he's gone.

Detroit has traded the 28-year-old defenseman along with a second-round pick in this week's draft to the Sharks for future considerations, a stunning salary dump and perhaps the precursor to another move in the coming days. Free agency opens July 1.

Walman, who frequently played on the Wings' top defensive pair with Moritz Seider, signed a three-year extension with Detroit in February of 2023 that carries a cap hit of $3.4 million each of the next two seasons. It's a solid deal for a player of his caliber. He was the Red Wings' leading goal scorer among defensemen the last two seasons while playing a little less than 20 minutes a night, but Steve Yzerman still had to attach a second-round pick to shed his contract.

Yzerman created a logjam on Detroit's blue line last season with the additions of veterans Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Holl and Jeff Petry. Holl spent most of the season out of the lineup after signing a three-year, $10.2 million deal identical to Walman's. Gostisbehere is a pending free agent and Yzerman has expressed strong interest in bringing him back after he quarterbacked the Wings' power play and finished fourth on the team in scoring with 56 points.

Petry is under contract for another season, along with Olli Maatta, while Ben Chiarot is signed through 2025-26. The Red Wings need to create room on the blueline for youngsters Simon Edvinsson, who looked worthy of top-four minutes after a call-up late last season, and perhaps Albert Johansson, who was recently signed to a one-year extension.

They also need to create room under the cap to extend Seider and forward Lucas Raymond this offseason and still upgrade the rest of the roster after falling just short of the playoffs last season. They are stuck in a franchise-worst eight-year playoff drought.

The cost of doing all that was Walman and a second-round pick, which the Red Wings had acquired earlier in the day from the Predators in a swap of prospects that sent forward Jesse Kiiskinen to Detroit and defenseman Andrew Gibson to Nashville. Both were drafted last year, Gibson in the second round, Kiiskinen in the third.