There are always some trades that come out of left field and take the hockey world by surprise. This trade would certainly qualify, as Alex Nedeljkovic, the goalie who looked like the future in Carolina, was shipped off to Detroit. The return was as follows:

My initial reaction was just shock. Nedeljkovic is a 25-year-old goalie who was a second-round pick in 2014. He had a couple good-but-not-great years in the AHL, and then broke out with a .932 save percentage in 23 games this season in the NHL. He also had a .920 in nine games in the playoffs.

Reminder: Jonathan Bernier is UFA. So, those are just his rights. He could sign somewhere else next week.

What Detroit gets

Simply, the Wings get a goalie who could be their starter for the bulk of the next decade. Goalies are always fickle and we'd be remiss to not mention all the goalies who've performed well in small samples but then gone on to not do much. Just think all the way back to José Theodore and Jim Carey, or more recently to guys like Scott Darling and Carter Hutton. I am not saying Nedeljkovic is any four of those guys, but the fact he did well in half a season and has a pedigree behind him is not a guarantee of success.

Then we have to factor in his team. I genuinely believe the Wings will be able to put together two decent scoring lines this year, but forward depth and the blue line are ongoing concerns. They have a lot of cap space, though, so what the team looks like now and what it looks like in 10 weeks are not the same thing.

Personally, I have always been a fan of Nedeljkovic. Again, goalies are hard to pin down, but he's always struck me as an athletic goalie with good reads on the play. That allows him, in theory, to make saves that other goalies can't. Every goalie is crazy athletic at this level, but even just a small separation is noticeable. That is my running theory as to why his high-danger save percentage was among the league leaders this year like Shesterkin, Vasilevskiy, and Saros. (Just by the by: Saros is a good comp here for Nedeljkovic.)

This is a great movie from Detroit, I believe. If Nedeljkovic doesn't pan out, the Wings are a couple years from being perennially competitive in their division anyway. The number for his cap hit is $3M AAV each of the next two years, which is very reasonable even if he doesn't work out. If he does, they now have the starting goalie they need for when they do get competitive. Just, again, beware of the team that surrounds the young netminder. He could have a good year himself but still not have great fantasy numbers because of how bad his team is; think something like Thatcher Demko this past campaign.