Red Wings trade Mitchell to Lightning for Stachowiak and Milne
With the AHL trade deadline approaching on Friday, the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning have swapped some players for their minor league affiliates in a trade on Thursday night.
In the trade, the Red Wings send defenseman Ian Mitchell to the Lightning in exchange for wingers Wojciech Stachowiak and Michael Milne.
UPDATE: The #RedWings have acquired Wojciech Stachowiak and Michael Milne in exchange for Ian Mitchell. Stachowiak and Milne have been assigned to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins.
Mitchell has the most NHL experience of any player in the deal, having played 110 games across five seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins. A second-round pick of the Blackhawks in the 2017 NHL Daft, he’s signed to a one-year, $775,000 contract and is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
Mitchell has spent the entirety of the 2025-26 season in the AHL with the Red Wings’ minor-league affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. In 45 games with the AHL’s top squad, he had four goals and 16 assists for 20 points.
Milne is the other player with NHL experience in the deal, getting one game with the Minnesota Wild in the 2024-25 season. He was a third-round pick of the Wild in 2022, and after signing a one-year, $775,000 contract with the Wild and starting the season with their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, he was dealt to the Lightning organization late in 2025, where he played for the last couple months until this current trade.
Milne has two goals and four assists for six points in 34 games in the AHL this season, including two goals and three assists for five points in 15 games with Iowa and one assist in 19 games with the Lightning’s affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
Stachowiak is one of the more intriguing players in the deal, as he played some excellent hockey in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga before signing his first NHL contract with the Lightning, a one-year, $775,000 deal.
Stachowiak has nine goals and eight assists for 17 points in 38 games with the Crunch this season. He also had one assist in two games with the German Olympic team in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.