The Detroit Red Wings have acquired Robby Fabbri from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Jacob de La Rose a swap of disappointing high draft picks from a few years ago.
Fabbri, 23, comes with much more fanfare because of his past, but it is hard to know exactly what the Red Wings are getting. Selected 21st overall in 2014, the speedy Guelph Storm winger looked like a lock to become a middle-six scoring forward that could help on the powerplay. Fabbri did exactly that in his first season in the NHL, scoring 18 goals and 37 points as a rookie in 2015-16.
Unfortunately, his career would be completely derailed by major knee injuries thereafter. Fabbri would miss the entire 2017-18 season and has played just 164 total games in his NHL career. He had just six points in 32 contests in 2018-19 and has been ineffective during limited opportunity this year. In Detroit he’ll be given a bigger chance, but it is a disappointing return for the Blues after they invested so much in the young forward.
The 24-year old de La Rose never did grow into the two-way power forward center that the Montreal Canadiens were hoping for when they picked him 34th overall in 2013. Instead, he found himself bouncing up and down from the minor leagues for short stints, never finding much consistency in his game or his opportunity. Eventually, the Canadiens decided that they could no longer justify his roster spot and put him on waivers where the Red Wings snatched him up, though the results wouldn’t really change.
In 60 games last season de La Rose scored just nine points, and though he’s off to a better pace this time around—four in 16—it appears he’ll never be much of an offensive threat in the NHL.
Amazingly, the two carry the same $900K cap hit and will both become restricted free agents at the end of the season.
Red wings trade a 4th, regula and jdlr for, erne, perlini and fabbri. Pretty good so far. Also loading up on 2014 first rounds picks with huge upside.
Good deal for the red wings. The blues really didnt give fabric consistant minutes. Something happened a couple days ago that berube didnt like I heard the announcers say, might have had something to do with it. But just looking at the two, seems like the blues could have done better. Fabbris stats are way better.
Nice buy low move Detroit. He could be a nice middle six player if they give him that right teammates and ice time.
Fabbri is a great pickup for Detroit. They should play him on line 2 imo
Stevie is like since this team can’t get any Ws on the ice I’ll have to start racking up the Ws in trades
I don’t think you can say any of these moves are “great” or even moves the needle. What he’s done is given players a change of scenery & a chance to get meaningful minutes on a bad team. If these guys end up doing well because of the opportunity, then you can justify using the word “great”. The only great thing that can happen this season is the day SY says good bye to Blashill. Time for a change.
I don’t know what investment by the Blues the writer is referring to. The Blued didn’t draft Fabbri and acquired him in a deal where they didn’t give up much(much like the trade with the Redwings). I wish the guy well I hope he is better than his numbers suggest and will get a bit better opportunity with the Wings(just not against the Blues).
The blues did draft Fabbri, but after two knee surgeries and multiple stints in the press box (healthy scratch), it was time to move on.