March 20, 2002
Detroit Free Press
BY NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA

About 15 minutes before Tuesday's 3 p.m. trade deadline, the Red Wings settled for defenseman Jiri Slegr. They offered minor league forward Yuri Butsayev and a third-round pick in this year's draft. Atlanta accepted.

Slegr wasn't the Wings' ideal choice in their attempt to add depth to their defense. But as they went through their options to the end, he emerged as their best fit, if not their only one, because they weren't willing to give up a regular off their roster or a top prospect for the players available. What's more, NHL sources said, Colorado was in the running for Slegr, too, and the Wings didn't want him going there.

The Avalanche, second to the Wings in the NHL standings, had acquired defenseman Darius Kasparaitis earlier in the day by sending defenseman Rick Berry and forward Ville Nieminen to the Penguins.

"He's going to make them much stronger," general manager Ken Holland said of Kasparaitis. "They're the defending Stanley Cup champions, and in my mind, the defending champions are always the team to beat. So you know that they're one of the favorites, if not the favorite, going into the playoffs."

Elsewhere in the Western Conference, Chicago added defenseman Lyle Odelein, trading defenseman Jaroslav Spacek and a 2003 second-round pick to Columbus. Dallas made a major move with New Jersey, acquiring forwards Jason Arnott and Randy McKay and a first-round pick this year for forwards Jamie Langenbrunner and Joe Nieuwendyk.

"They all made themselves stronger," Holland said. "We think we made ourselves stronger."

The Wings scouted Slegr heavily and weren't impressed, NHL sources said. He wasn't the gritty guy they really wanted. As an offensive threat, they weren't even sure he was as good as what they already had in Steve Duchesne and Fredrik Olausson.

But the Wings had liked him in the past, he had the experience rookies Maxim Kuznetsov and Jesse Wallin lacked, and they thought he might perform better on a first-place team than a last-place team.

"He's capable of playing a lot of minutes if he needs to," Holland said. "In the event that we do have some injuries, or depending on who he fits in with, we think he can play a lot of minutes and bring a lot of things to our hockey club."

Holland said he had talked to other general managers about most of the defensemen traded Tuesday.

"We either didn't think they were a fit for our team, or the price was higher than we were prepared to pay," he said.

Kasparaitis was the Wings' first choice, but Holland said his last conversation with Pittsburgh GM Craig Patrick was Sunday.

"What they were looking for from our hockey club just wasn't what we were prepared to do," Holland said.

Holland said he talked to Columbus GM Doug MacLean 10 times Tuesday, but NHL sources said the Wings thought Odelein's $2.5-million salary next season was too high. The Wings looked into Florida's Jeff Norton, who was traded to Boston for a sixth-round draft pick, but decided against him. They explored a trade with Washington involving forward Ulf Dahlen and one of two defensemen, Ken Klee and Frantisek Kucera, but the Capitals wanted a top prospect.

The Slegr trade leaves the Wings' cupboard a bit bare for this year's draft, because they gave up their first-rounder to acquire goaltender Dominik Hasek last summer. But they don't consider Butsayev a big loss. He couldn't crack the Wings' lineup, and he would have had to clear waivers to go to the minors next season.