after moving Brayden Schenn earlier<\/a>. That\u2019s a good day of work for a team starting up a potential retool\/rebuild.<\/p>\nThe big winner, though, is Detroit. Captain Dylan Larkin was disappointed the team didn\u2019t do anything last deadline, and he got his wish this time around with the Red Wings in a much stronger position to make a splash. Detroit desperately needed another top-four defenseman to play behind Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson; Faulk checks that box perfectly.<\/p>\n
While he isn\u2019t flashy, Faulk is a sturdy player who gets decent results for his role. His defensive game has become a lot more reliable, and he can still put up solid offensive numbers with 32 points in 61 games. The biggest draw, though, is that Faulk will push one of Detroit\u2019s weaker defensemen into the press box. It\u2019s not just adding Faulk\u2019s plus-2.2 Net Rating; it\u2019s removing a guy who\u2019s closer to minus-7. That moves the needle.<\/p>\n
For Detroit, more than any other team, getting a regular top-four guy had especially large ramifications. Faulk is that guy, and his presence positions the Red Wings much better in the Atlantic hierarchy.<\/p>\n
Red Wings grade: A
Blues grade: B+<\/p>\n
Shayna Goldman: The Red Wings finally bought at the deadline. And technically, they check off a pretty important need: a right-handed defenseman.<\/p>\n
Faulk may not have been the best defenseman on the market or the perfect fit, but there\u2019s still some potential here on both ends of the ice. Over the last couple of seasons, he has cleaned up his in-zone play to help limit damage against in St. Louis. This year, he not only had the best relative impacts on the Blues\u2019 xG and goals against, but they were some of the best marks of his career.<\/p>\n
The problem is, some of that defensive work has come at the expense of his offense. Still, maybe a change in scenery can help him tilt the ice more moving forward. In Detroit, he will have the support of one of the best top pairs in the league to drive the bus in matchup minutes, taking some of the pressure off his plate, and potentially maximizing his role as a No. 3 \u2014 a role that suits him at this point in his career. Furthermore, his arrival will help punt some weak links out of Detroit\u2019s lineup.<\/p>\n
This is a real step in the right direction for the Red Wings, who could use a boost in both directions. Few teams have as deep an asset pool as Detroit, and as much as that has helped build this team that is finally turning the corner, at a certain point, a general manager has to turn some of those future assets into something tangible. Up to two playoff runs of Faulk is absolutely that.<\/p>\n
The Blues\u2019 overall deadline day feels somewhat disappointing, considering how many high-end players they had on the board and the hauls they, theoretically, could have brought back. At the very least, two veterans helped bring back first-rounders, so the vision is still there.<\/p>\n
Red Wings grade: A-
Blues grade: B<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detroit Red Wings get: Defenseman Justin Faulk St. Louis Blues get: First-round pick in 2026, third-round pick in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1786,385,99,1610],"class_list":["post-509113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-st-louis-blues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}