Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Red Wings remain in search of an upgrade on defense.

Having judged no one available on the free-agent market to be a significant improvement over the players already on the roster, the Wings are trying to acquire one through a trade, while also eyeing the prospects within the organization.

Xavier Ouellet, Ryan Sproul and Nick Jensen are no longer waiver-exempt, so they need to either make the roster this fall or the team has to decide between trading the player or risking losing him on waivers for no compensation.

Ouellet, 23 this month, is the only one who has shown he can play at the NHL level, having played 30 games for the Wings over the past three seasons. Sproul, 23, is a rarity: a right-handed-shooting defenseman, and he’s a big body at 6-foot-4, 200-odd pounds. Jensen’s asset is his skating.

None is the higher-end talent the Wings so desperately need on the back end. That’s why there’s been talk with Anaheim about Cam Fowler, a 24-year-old elite skater who already has played more than 400 NHL games. Given how hot a commodity good defensemen are, it would probably take Tomas Tatar or Gustav Nyquist, plus a high second-round pick.

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One reason to move Tatar rather than Nyquist is that Tatar will be a restricted free agent in another season and will cost in the $4.5-million annual range to re-sign. St. Louis’ Kevin Shattenkirk is better on the power play than Fowler, but Shattenkirk is unrestricted next summer and he’ll command in the $6-7 million range. Winnipeg’s Jacob Trouba is 6-foot-3 and shoots right, which is why the Jets want to keep him.

Something does need to be done about the back end. Niklas Kronwall has a bad knee and is showing the wear-and-tear of a lot of hard miles. Jonathan Ericsson needs to play with desperation, not comfort. Fowler could potentially be a good first-pairing opposite Danny DeKeyser.

Asked about the defense, general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press in the aftermath of Friday’s start of free agency that he’d “let the dust settle, let people see what they got, and go from there.”

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Check out our Red Wings Xtra app on Apple and Android!