The Detroit Red Wings have signed another impressive young forward, reaching a three-year entry-level contract with Lucas Raymond. The deal will kick in for the 2021-22 season and, according to PuckPedia, carry a cap hit of $925K. The contract includes up to $850K in Schedule “A” performance bonuses and $1.65MM in Schedule “B” bonuses each season.
Raymond, 19, was the fourth-overall pick in the 2020 draft behind the trio of Alexis Lafreniere, Quinton Byfield, and Tim Stutzle. The Swedish forward spent this season in the SHL, once again suiting up for Frolunda. In his second full season for the professional club, he was given even more responsibility and ended up with 18 points in 34 games.
While that number doesn’t jump off the page, there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to Raymond’s offensive upside. The 5’10” winger has brilliant vision and routinely creates space for his teammates by drawing defenders into him before finding a passing lane. He’s best with the puck on his stick, carrying it through traffic or protecting it in the offensive zone. His future will likely be riding shotgun with the Red Wings best goal scorer, racking up points while still being a dangerous shooter in his own right.
Of course, there’s still development to go for the top pick, but getting Raymond under contract means we may see him in the NHL as soon as next season. The fact that he has years of professional experience will only help his transition to the NHL or AHL in 2021-22, should the Red Wings decide that North America is best for him. Of note is the fact that since Raymond’s birthday falls in March, his contract will be able to slide even next season–meaning he will have to play in at least 11 NHL games in 2021-22 to burn the first year.
Yzerman is putting a nice nucleus together in Motown.
Out with the old, in with the nucleus!
This guy is the future.
Laf sucks
He doesn’t suck but he was never as far ahead of Byfield and Stutzle as the media made it out to be. Byfield was the smarter pick for NYR but Laf had an irrational amount of buzz. He was never on McDavid, Crosby, McKinnon, Tavares level. More like Taylor Hall.
No one really doubted Stevie Y was going to come back to Motown so it’s not shocking that he did and has aggressively changed the drafting targets. Yzerman knows talent and he will get the Wings back in mix by 2024. Unfortunately, they traded so many picks away for a decades that they never had anyone coming up through the ranks. They kept their playoff streak alive for 25 years but that was costly. Instead of having prospects developing, they relied on FA and trades. Now, they are young and have some very good prospects in the system. By 2023, they will many of these prospects up and playing and by 2024, they should be in the mix for the playoffs. The missing key right now is the goaltending. They need one to develop so I expect them to draft one this year in the 2nd round or possibly a bit later. They have so many picks in the next two years, they need to hit on a goal tender.