Take away a couple of factors. Namely two draft pick and another player and the Detroit Red Wings essentially traded Jakub Vrana for Anthony Mantha, April 12, 2021. No matter how long the two players are with their current teams they will always be linked. Both player have made immediate impacts for the teams that acquired them the Washington Capitals (Mantha) and Red Wings (Vrana.) Both players have scored multiple goals for their respective teams.
Anthony Mantha scored goals in each of his first four games for Washington. While in Detroit, Jakub Vrana scored a goal in his first game and then erupted for four goals against the Dallas Stars. The last Red Wings player to score four goals in a game, you got it Anthony Mantha.
Jakub Vrana has made a quick impression with the Red Wings organization. Vrana has always been known as a pure goals scorer, a sniper if you will. But a logjam of players in Washington kept Vrana from ice time and from showing his true potential.
Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman, knew he could not trade Mantha and get no production back. Draft picks are nice and all, but the reality is even the best draft picks need time to develop.
It is not that Jakub Vrana can score goals that makes him an interesting acquisition. Vrana has shown himself to be a solid player at both ends of the ice as well as fight for loose pucks in the corners.
Speed? Jakub Vrana has speed. That is another facet is Vrana’s game and one that any coach in any sport will tell you can not be learned. Vrana during his time with the Capitals was a player who fans and media always said “if he could just have more ice time.” In other words many including inside Washington’s organization believed they had a special player.
Now with more ice time in Detroit, Vrana in a short period of time is showing that he can indeed be a special player. So, the answer to if Jakub Vrana should be a Detroit Red Wing long term is yes.
