The final restricted free agent to be signed is Andreas Athanasiou, who has not been able to work out a deal with the Detroit Red Wings. Athanasiou has been skating in Switzerland to try and stay ready for the season should a deal be worked out, but there had been little discussion in recent weeks between the two sides.
That seems to be changing now, as Bob McKenzie of TSN reports that dialogue between Athanasiou’s agent Darren Ferris and the Red Wings has really increased in the last few days. McKenzie cautions that there is nothing imminent, and even suggests that Athanasiou could sign in Switzerland to start playing real games.
The Red Wings are actually off to a solid start to the year, going 4-2 in their first six games and scoring more than most expected. Some of that has to do with Mike Green’s impressive nine point performance in the early going, but the team has also leaned on younger players like Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin and Martin Frk. Should Athanasiou return quickly, perhaps the young guns in Detroit are better positioned to push this team close to a playoff spot than many believed before the season began.
Still, the Red Wings are in tough with the salary cap. According to CapFriendly, the team has used all of the space provided by Johan Franzen’s LTIR status and currently project to be over the cap by the end of the season. That means, in order to sign Athanasiou and bring him onto the active roster they’d need to make a corresponding move. If the reported $1.9MM (two years for $3.8MM in actuality) price tag is true, it’s a lot of room to move quickly. One option would be the much speculated Riley Sheahan, who comes in at just under $2.1MM, or sending at least two players down to the minor leagues. Detroit is already operating with just 22 players, one fewer than the maximum allowed for an NHL roster.
This has turned into a huge joke between a poor, excuse of a GM & a young player that has proven very little in two partial seasons. AA is said to be losing around $10,000 per day while he is over in Europe somewhere. These type of holdouts rarely turn out good for the player involved & more often than not, he gets traded after resigning. This happened to Drouin in Tampa Bay & he is much more established than AA. It seems as though as Athanasiou is letting his agent completely dictate to him about what he should or shouldn’t do. My opinion? Athanasiou needs to sit down face to face with Ken Holland & leave his agent out of the conversation for now just to see what comes out of it. Bridges are being slowly burned between Athanasiou, the team & especially with his teammates who count on him to make the Red Wings a bit better.