The Detroit Red Wings are buying out the final year of recently-acquired winger Kailer Yamamoto’s contract, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger.
Dreger adds that “Detroit strongly considered keeping him but couldn’t make moves to make it work.” The move will save Detroit $2.66MM of Yamamoto’s $3.1MM cap hit for this season, at a cost of $533k on their cap for next year.
It’s a somewhat curious move, as many initially viewed the Red Wings’ acquisition of Yamamoto as an earnest investment from Detroit in the possibility of a Yamamoto rebound.
He was a 20-goal, 41-point scorer just last year, but it appears the combination Yamamoto’s production decline as well as the somewhat crowded state of the Red Wings’ top-nine meant that it was in Detroit’s best interest to eat a relatively small cap penalty rather than roster the player at a $3.1MM cap hit.
This move means that Detroit took on the burden of buying out Yamamoto for the purpose of acquiring Klim Kostin’s RFA negotiation rights, rather than due to any interest in acquiring Yamamoto himself.
Kostin has been rumored to be considering a KHL exit (though that could obviously be no more than a negotiation tactic) and could be seeking a raise above his $750k cap hit from last season thanks to a quality campaign with the Edmonton Oilers.
For the any contract Detroit weighs giving Kostin, they’ll need to include the small amount of dead money afforded to Yamamoto in their value equation.
So the only reason Detroit made that deal was to get Kostin? Now they’re basically paying an extra 500k over the next two years on top of whatever Kostin’s own salary will be.
They had plenty of money to do so.
Excited about Kostin. I wonder if he will be like Michael Rasmussen… tough to play against and can chip in 10-15 goals
Kostin is super inconsistent. But when he is on, he is fun to watch.
This seems odd
I would like to say I’ll hold my tongue incase yzerman Finally snags an elite player… but my instincts tell me the best we’re gonna do is a wheeler type player … damn I’m glad I was born in 87 and don’t have to go through 2 stints of dead wings. This is ugly, I was finally a little excited about a player ( Yamamoto ) thanks for bringing me back to reality
Hah, yeah, you were lucky. Other than some flashes of light, the Wings sucked for the whole expansion era until deep into the 1980s.
This stuff is cyclical. It does not go on forever. Just ask the Montreal Canadians. Sure, the late 70’s and early 80’s sucked, but once the foundation was in place the Wings had 26 straight years in the playoffs, nine or ten conference finals, six Stanley Cup finals, and four Stanley Cups. It will come back around. This is not the NFL or MLB where teams can go worst to first. I was around during the Dead Wings era and this is nothing close. They really sucked back then.
Shenaniganary!
Pens should take a flyer on him could use some speed and youth