What’s The Holdup With Ottawa Trading Alex DeBrincat To Detroit Red Wings?

The most annoying "Will they or won't they?" of the summer continues to linger, painstakingly.

The Ottawa Senators still have not traded scorer Alex DeBrincat, despite weeks of reporting and speculation pointing to the absolute inevitability thereof. One of the prime suitors is, and has been for quite some time, your Detroit Red Wings, who are desperate for some added scoring.

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DeBrincat, a 25-year-old winger from Michigan, has scored 40-plus goals twice in his young career already but is coming off a disappointing 2022-2023 that saw him tally just 27 goals. That production in a down year would still rank second-best of all Detroit Red Wings last season, though, and first among their wingers.

In the lead-up to last week's NHL Draft, several reported that Ottawa dealing DeBrincat was imminent and named Detroit as one of the likely destinations. That, of course, never materialized. Now a week later, those rumblings have found new life, seemingly peaking Thursday when multiple outlets, including national NHL sources, reporting that DeBrincat was about to be on his way to Detroit.

Early Friday, the Senators reportedly removed DeBrincat from their official roster online, for whatever reason. That, naturally, caused many to believe the prophecies to be have been true, only for DeBrincat to be added back to Ottawa's site shortly thereafter. Who knows what was going on there.

Regardless, if this deal is such an obvious home-run for all involved, why hasn't it happened? If it's such a natural fit and makes so much sense, what's the holdup?

Well, even if this is a trade that the Red Wings, Senators, and DeBrincat all want to make happen, it turns out there are a few things that are likely to complicate the negotiations.