NHL Insider Darren Dreger made an appearance on Buffalo’s WGR 550 Wednesday morning, and added another tidbit on a potential Red Wings angle to the Jacob Trouba trade request situation.

The conversation shifted from a discussion on the contract extension of Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen to how both Hampus Lindholm and Jacob Trouba would have wanted Ristolainen’s contract to have been higher for comparable purposes.

“Yeah, no question,” agreed Dreger. “Lindholm is different for me than Trouba. Lindholm wants to be in Anaheim. The Ducks want Lindholm to sign long-term and be a Duck forever. I know that. I mean, it’s a negotiation. There’s going to be a push and pull, and they’re obviously not at a point yet where the deal is close, but I think it’s inching there.

“Trouba is different. Even though he said, ‘It’s not about Winnipeg. It’s not about the Jets. It’s not about the city.’ You know what? To some degree it kind of feels like it has to be, doesn’t it?

“And I know that he would love to play for the Detroit Red Wings. I get it. There are lots of other teams that he would like to play for. I believe he’d love to play for the Detroit Red Wings. But the Detroit Red Wings aren’t trading Dylan Larkin. And beyond Dylan Larkin, there’s no fit for Jacob Trouba in terms of Winnipeg’s interest in the Red Wings’ roster. So that one’s a bit more complicated.

“I think it’s less about money for Trouba, frankly, in Winnipeg, and more about going where he believes he can be the right fit on the right side of the blueline.

“I think he likes Detroit, but Detroit just doesn’t have the assets.”

Wednesday’s note on Trouba complements what Dreger has recently relayed as well.

“I know that Cheveldayoff received several offers during the summer. I know that one came from Detroit,” Dreger noted then while on Ottawa’s TSN 1200 September 28. “I’m told that it involved two of their higher-level forwards, and Holland wasn’t willing or able to stomach that. As much as the Detroit Red Wings need defense, they can’t move out multiple pieces of scoring, otherwise they fill one hole and dig another.

“But none of the offers that were made on Trouba were obviously good enough, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

October 4, Dreger added this while on Vancouver’s TSN 1040:

“I mentioned Detroit a couple of weeks ago publicly as being one of the primary suitors for Jacob Trouba,” said Dreger. “I can tell you that Kenny Holland has worked incredibly hard over the past couple few years at trying to add a defenseman. I know that he’s had conversations with Cheveldayoff, and I believe that Holland is willing to make a deal for just about anyone outside of Dylan Larkin. But there’s no one really in the Detroit Red Wings organization that seems to be a fit for Cheveldayoff, which tells me that Winnipeg, again, is committed to being patient.”

So one of the defensemen in Detroit in a package doesn’t fit the bill?

“Doesn’t sound like it,” replied Dreger. “Doesn’t sound like it. Danny DeKeyser is a pretty good hockey player. I would have thought him and geez – if you have to throw someone else in, I guess you try and sweeten it.

“But in fairness to Chevy, he’s got a pretty keen idea of what he needs and he has the rights to Jacob Trouba. It’s not an unrestricted free agent situation here, obviously. He’s going to sit tight and wait for a few things to maybe transpire, including the potential – and I’m not suggesting this is going to happen, but it could – the change of heart of the player.”

Source: WGR 550/ Transcript: Nichols