VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Detroit Red Wings opted to move defenseman Brendan Smith to shore up the future.
They traded the 28-year-old to the New York Rangers today for a second-round pick in 2018 (originally from Ottawa) and a third-round pick in this year’s draft. Last week, the Wings acquired Chicago’s third-round 2017 pick in exchange for forward Tomas Jurco.
General manager Ken Holland told the Free Press that the trade came amid talks of re-signing Smith, who's set to become an unrestricted free agent.
“We had talked over the last week or so about re-signing, and were making good progress,” Holland said.