Report: Zadina gave up on the Red Wings before Yzerman dumped him on waivers

In case you missed it earlier today, the Detroit Red Wings placed former 6th overall pick Filip Zadina on waivers. The 23 year old Czech sniper is now available to any NHL team for free on the waiver wire.

While Zadina hasn't developed the way anyone has expected, it was still a surprise to see him on the waiver wire today. Once seen as a potential 1st overall pick to rival Rasmus Dahlin back in 2018, Zadina fell in the draft rankings and dropped to pick #6 on Draft day. Since then his stock has continued to drop with his best season in the NHL coming in 2021-22 where he put up just 10 goals and 24 points in 74 games. At this point, his stock couldn't get much lower.

But you know what? Maybe we shouldn't be surprised with today's news. 

Red Wings insider Ansar Khan reports today that GM Steve Yzerman himself admitted today that Zadina and his agent requested a trade weeks ago. Yzerman attempted to find a trade partner, but couldn't find any interested parties. Because of that he waived him in order to give Zadina a fresh start elsewhere.

Check it out:

Yzerman said Zadina and his agent asked for a trade a few weeks ago. He tried to accommodate him. He wasn’t able to find a team that was interested. So he waived him. But he’s not writing off his career and believes he can still be an NHL player.

- Ansar Khan

It remains to be seen what happens with Zadina, but I think that at least one NHL team out there would be interested in picking him up for literally nothing. If though, no one makes a claim for him he'll be assigned to the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins. And, to be fair, Zadina has been productive in his short time with the Griffins. He put up nine goals and 16 points in just 21 games with the team back in 2019-20. It's worth noting that his $1.825 salary cap hit for the next two seasons could be a tough consideration for some teams, however.