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Camp Notes: Stamkos, Pateryn, Polak, Hurricanes, Trotman

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Lightning center Steven Stamkos sustained a new lower-body injury during training for the NHL’s return and will not be a full participant at their upcoming training camp GM Julien BriseBois told reporters including Joe Smith of The Athletic (Twitter link).  However, he is expected to be ready to go when their seeding games get underway.  Smith relays in a separate tweet that the beneficiary of this will be winger Alex Barre-Boulet who has now been added to their camp roster.  The 23-year-old has yet to play at the NHL but has been quite productive with AHL Syracuse as he has 124 points in 134 games over his first two pro seasons after signing as an undrafted free agent.

More training camp notes from around the league:

  • Wild defenseman Greg Pateryn will not be at their training camp as the team announced (Twitter link) that he is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury. It has been a tough year for the veteran on the injury front as a core muscle injury cost him 43 games earlier in the season.  As a result, he has suited up just 20 times in 2019-20 and barring a quick recovery or a long playoff run, that might be it for him.
  • Stars defenseman Roman Polak is not on their training camp roster, relays Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News (via Twitter). This comes as little surprise after the blueliner voiced his concern about returning for the postseason at the time his deal for next year with HC Vitkovice of the Czech Extraliga was announced.  The vacancy opened up a spot for Dallas to invite Thomas Harley, their 2019 first-round pick, to camp although it seems unlikely that he’ll suit up.
  • The Hurricanes have added to their coaching staff in advance of camp getting underway, announcing the hiring of Peter Harrold as a skills coach. The 37-year-old played parts of nine seasons in the NHL with Los Angeles and New Jersey from 2006-07 through 2014-15 before calling it a career in 2016.
  • Still with Carolina, GM Don Waddell told Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer (Twitter link) that a decision has yet to be made regarding Brett Pesce’s availability. The blueliner is working his way back from shoulder surgery after being injured late in the season and is still probably a month away from skating at a minimum.  If he’s not among the list of players on their roster when they travel to Toronto, he will not be eligible to play until next season so the Hurricanes will have to decide whether or not to carry a player on their roster who won’t be available for a couple of rounds at least.
  • Penguins defenseman Zach Trotman will not be on their roster, GM Jim Rutherford told reporters, including Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Twitter link). The 29-year-old played in nine games with Pittsburgh this season and was expected to be among their reserve options for the postseason.  No details were provided regarding whether his absence is injury-related or if he opted out of returning.

PHR Mailbag: Blackhawks-Oilers, Eichel, TV, Ruff

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Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include the Chicago-Edmonton series, Jack Eichel’s future in Buffalo, forecasting the television picture for the NHL’s Return to Play, and Lindy Ruff’s hiring in New Jersey.  If your question doesn’t appear here, watch for it in next week’s mailbag.

Mark L: When play stopped, the Oilers offense was looking very strong while the Blackhawks defense was a mess. Because of the long suspension of play, Chicago will have Calvin de Haan back for sure and could have Brent Seabrook back as well.

They also have some younger, talented players who won’t have played a gruelling campaign before jumping into a playoff. If Corey Crawford can stay healthy and in net, what are the chances this is a more competitive series, perhaps one Chicago can steal, than it looks to be at first glance?

With teams being off for as long as they have been, every series has a chance to be more competitive than it may seem on paper.  Good teams can come out of the gate slow in the regular season and this is a longer layoff than a typical summer so there are bound to be some surprises along the way.

It’s interesting that you mention Crawford as I think goaltending will be a huge part of this series but it’s Edmonton’s goaltending that could very well dictate the outcome.  When he’s on his game, Mikko Koskinen can be a real difference-maker.  On the flip side, when he’s off, he’s really off.  If he’s not sharp out of the gate, that’s one area that Chicago can exploit.  Mike Smith is a capable backup that can steady things in that instance but he’s probably not going to steal games at this point of his career.

Crawford’s top level isn’t as good as Koskinen’s but the inconsistency isn’t as sharp either (which is good as turning to Malcolm Subban wouldn’t be ideal given the year he had).  If Chicago can get the better goaltending, they’ll have a decent chance in this series unless Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl steal the show and with how they performed during the regular season, they can win games on their own even if Crawford outperforms Koskinen.

Getting de Haan back will certainly help defensively and on the penalty kill but I don’t know if they’d want to risk putting Seabrook back in.  He’s just starting to skate now after being off since mid-December and he was struggling before being taken out.  Even if Seabrook does play, it’s hard to see him getting more than a spot on the third pairing which will limit his chances of making any sort of tangible impact in this series.

Baji Kimran: Do you think Buffalo is considering moving Jack Eichel? If so, what would they want in return, High-end talent that is already in the NHL or a slew of draft picks (#1’s, #2’s)? Finally, if they were open to moving Eichel, don’t you think the team that wins the Alexis Lafreniere sweepstakes would be smart to try to acquire Eichel?

Eichel’s comments back in May where he indicated that he is “fed up with losing” certainly raised some eyebrows around the league and evidently caught the attention of Sabres ownership as they decided to change course with the firing of Jason Botterill as GM with Kevyn Adams taking over as his replacement.  I think Adams’ mandate is now to change things up while still building around Eichel, not moving him out though.

With all due respect to Adams who has clearly done enough to impress ownership to give him the nod, this will be his first crack at being a part of management.  Having a raw rookie in the GM role is risky enough let alone asking him to try to find the right trade for your franchise player, disgruntled as he may be at the moment.  It’s not a good time to move him, especially with his AAV of $10MM being near the top of the league at a time where teams are going to be in tough for cap space.

But for the sake of discussion, let’s say Adams was considering it.  Moving him for another established top talent doesn’t really move the needle much – now you’d have a different top player with a supporting cast that still needs some work.  So about the only way moving Eichel would make some sense is if Buffalo decided to do yet another rebuild with the target return being two or three core assets (top draft pick, top prospects, or young NHL players with top-half potential) plus some veteran salary ballast similar to what Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka were in the Ryan O’Reilly trade with St. Louis.  That doesn’t seem like a particularly appealing route for the Sabres to take at the moment so I’d be very surprised if Eichel is on the move.

M34: Are all the remaining games going to be nationally televised?

This is something that is being discussed now that the ratification is done with a schedule being set and an answer is expected in the very near future.  So with the risk of this being proven incorrect in a hurry, here is my prediction.

Exhibition games, the play-in round, and the round-robin games for the top four teams in each conference will be shown regionally with national networks being allowed to convert a handful to the wider coverage level.  The league has gone out of its way to call these games non-playoff contests and I suspect part of the reason is that they want to use this for inventory for regional sports networks to make up for some of the lost games as a result of the effective cancellation of the rest of the regular season.  (Of course, the stats are counting as playoff stats which goes against their long-stated assertion that these aren’t playoff games but let’s play along with the league here anyway.)

I also wouldn’t be shocked if some RSNs will get the ability to show games in the first round to also help make up the lost game inventory.  I could also see those games getting national coverage and while that seems somewhat redundant, it wouldn’t be that hard to do.  A world feed will be produced with individual networks doing their own graphics.  Accordingly, it would be easy enough for NBC (in the United States) or Sportsnet (in Canada) to have their own commentators doing the game nationally while the RSN has the same video feed but with the local broadcast team.  It’s a bit of a compromise and there has been plenty of that lately with the CBA MOU and Return to Play protocols getting finalized.

MoneyBallJustWorks: Thoughts on the Lindy Ruff signing by NJ and where do you think some of the more prominent names could end up going?

I was a bit surprised by the hire as I figured he’d be behind some of the more prominent names but I don’t mind it.  Ruff is not the long-term coach that’s going to steer New Jersey out of their rebuild, into contention, and onto a Stanley Cup championship.  Instead, he’s what I call a ‘transitional coach’.

Ruff’s reputation is that he gets the best offensively out of teams although the defensive play leaves something to be desired.  But right now, that’s okay.  I’d rather have that than the opposite even though that would normally be the smarter route for a team in their situation.

The strong point of this roster is their offense.  They have a pair of top picks in Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes who have plenty of skill but have been hit or miss at times in their early NHL careers.  Their top priority in a coaching search should have been finding someone who is best equipped to help these two develop.  Ruff should be able to help do that.

Are they going to struggle defensively?  Sure.  But that was going to be the case no matter who they installed as head coach unless they went to a pure trapping system and tried to win games 2-1.  That wouldn’t have been ideal for their two hopeful franchise cornerstones though.  The Devils have some talent on their back end but some of those defenders are more offensive-minded than defensive-minded so a change to a more up-tempo style may benefit them as well.

A few years from now, Hughes and Hischier have established themselves as offensive stars in an ideal world and the focus can then shift towards really shoring up the back end.  (By then, they’ll also hope to have their goaltending situation figured out as either Mackenzie Blackwood has established himself as a starter or someone else will be in that role.)  By then, they should be back in the mix for a playoff spot and will probably have made it once or twice.  That will be the time to look for the longer-term coaching option but by then, Ruff should have helped steer the franchise in the right direction.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Sven Baertschi Opts Out Of NHL Return

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Canucks winger Sven Baertschi was expected to be among Vancouver’s list of nine recalls for their upcoming Qualifying Round series against Minnesota but that won’t be the case anymore.  Instead, he has informed the team that he has opted out of returning, reports Rick Dhaliwal of TSN 1040 and The Athletic (Twitter link).

This season was one to forget for the 27-year-old as he spent the majority of the season the minors with AHL Utica.  To his credit, he was quite productive with the Comets, picking up 13 goals and 33 assists in just 43 games but it failed to materialize into much of an NHL opportunity has he had just six games with Vancouver where he had two assists.

Baertschi cleared waivers at the start of the season, largely due to his contract which carries a $3.367MM cap hit and runs through the 2020-21 campaign.  While his camp had asked for a trade on multiple occasions, nothing came of it with that contract likely being the sticking point.  The Canucks will have to decide in the offseason whether or not they want to buy out the last year of that deal or have him back in a similar role for next season.

In the meantime, Baertschi’s withdrawal has opened up a spot for Kole Lind to attend camp with the Canucks.  The second-year pro has yet to play in the NHL but saw his production increase considerably compared to his rookie year; he had 44 points in 61 games this season after just having 17 in 51 contests in 2018-19.

Coyotes Place Andy Miele On Unconditional Waivers

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Andy Miele’s time in North America appears to be coming to an end…again.  Craig Morgan of AZ Coyotes Insider reports (Twitter link) that the center has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination.

A prolific scorer at the college level, the 32-year-old has carved out a reasonable career for himself as a top producer at the lower levels but it has failed to materialize into much of an NHL opportunity as he has just 15 games under his belt, all with Arizona in his first stint with the team after he left Miami (Ohio).

Last July, he decided to make the trek back from the KHL and signed a two-year deal with the Coyotes that guaranteed him at least $350K per year.  However, he never made it past the AHL and while he was quite productive with the Tucson Roadrunners with 15 goals and 33 assists in 58 games, it sounds as if he wants to go back overseas as he was linked to return to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod where he spent the 2018-19 campaign.

Assuming he clears waivers at 11 AM CT on Sunday, the Coyotes will be able to release Miele from his contract with no salary cap penalty.

Offseason Keys: Ottawa Senators

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The offseason has arrived for at least seven teams that were not invited to take part in the play-in round that’s slated to begin in early August.  With that in mind, our Offseason Keys series is underway for the teams that are on the outside looking in.  Next up is a look at Ottawa.

The Senators committed to a full-scale rebuild over the last couple of years when they dealt away the majority of their top players.  Not surprisingly, the corresponding performance this season wasn’t particularly strong.  The good news is that they have built up a strong prospect pool and are set to add to that with two picks in the top five in October.  But hitting on those two selections is only a small part of what they will be looking to do this offseason.

Spend, Spend, Spend

For a team that, let’s face it, has shown a reluctance to spend towards the Upper Limit of the salary cap, this may seem like a strange header.  In normal times, they likely wouldn’t be going out of their way to take on contracts but this isn’t anywhere close to being normal times.  The cap isn’t going up and that means there are going to be plenty more motivated sellers this offseason than we’ve been accustomed to seeing.

Ottawa has a strong stockpile of picks and prospects already but there is always room for more at this stage of their rebuilding phase.  The more options they have, the better.  Those will likely be the currency getting used to make those deals and GM Pierre Dorion should be quite interested as a result.

The Senators would likely be shopping at a different end of the market though and it actually may wind up being to their advantage.  While higher-spending teams will be shopping for the best talent available and trying to drive a hard bargain to get the best deal possible, Ottawa’s previous willingness to take on high AAV deals that carry a lower salary is going to be appealing to teams looking to cut money.  (Their past trades for Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan – both injured players – provide another pathway to pursue if it’s a short-term deal as well.)  Rather than lose an impact player, parting with a decent sweetener to pawn off an inflated AAV is a much better alternative and Dorion should be poised to take advantage of that, perhaps better than any other team.

Duclair Deal

Last summer, the Senators played it safe with Anthony Duclair, a move that was certainly understandable given his past performance.  Instead of looking for a long-term deal, they opted for a one-year, $1.65MM pact which the winger certainly lived up to and then some this year.  While his production was still streaky at times, he finished up his year with 23 goals (a career high) and 40 points while his point-per-game rate of 0.61 was better than any other season in his career.

With salary arbitration rights, Duclair is looking at a nice raise this offseason even with the salary cap flattening out.  But will it be a long-term contract this time around or a short-term one?  He’s two years away from UFA eligibility so it’s at the typical point where the bridge contract is now done and a long-term deal is worked out.

That still doesn’t seem like an automatic outcome here, however.  As some of Ottawa’s prospects work their way up the system, is there going to be a spot for Duclair in their top six a few years from now?  If they think the answer is yes, then this is probably the best spot to buy out a UFA year or two at the very least.  But if not, another short-term pact (perhaps even another one-year contract) may be the better way to go even though it runs the risk of getting him to a point next summer where he opts for a one-year arbitration award to expedite a shot at the open market (for the second time after he was non-tendered in 2018).  This will be one of the trickier decisions that Dorion will have to contend with in the coming months.

Add A Top-Six Center

Part of the reason that Jean-Gabriel Pageau was in the middle of a career year before being shipped out at the trade deadline was that he was effectively Ottawa’s number one center by default which allowed him to average more than 19 minutes per game.  That’s not an ideal amount of ice time for him but in head coach D.J. Smith’s defense, he didn’t really have any other options.  Colin White struggled mightily in the first year of his new deal, Chris Tierney is best used on the third line, while Artem Anisimov and Nick Paul should be in even lesser roles.  It got to the point where Brady Tkachuk was tried in the middle at times and while he held his own, his willingness and ability to engage physically makes him a better candidate to stay on the wing.

Granted, Ottawa does have high hopes for Josh Norris but despite a stellar rookie campaign in the minors, he’s not stepping into that role right away.  Neither is Logan Brown, a player who hasn’t been able to put it all together just yet.  There’s a good chance that they’ll wind up with at least one center with one of those early selections but throwing them to the wolves right away with a spot on the number one line is asking for trouble.

It’s not an area that Ottawa is realistically going to be able to address in free agency as quite frankly, the UFA market for centers isn’t the greatest.  It’s also unlikely that they’d be the top bidder if there was one out there.  Instead, this is one spot they’ll likely have to make a trade to improve.  A number one pivot is doubtful but as teams are looking to free up money, some quality second liners should be out there.  Even that would represent a considerable upgrade on what their current options are and would allow their up-and-coming youngsters to ease into their roles which, from a long-term development perspective, would be ideal.   Someone with three or four years left on their contract would fit in relatively well and would be a nice addition for Dorion to make.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Travis Hamonic Opts Out Of NHL’s Return

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With the CBA now formally ratified, the narrow window for players to officially opt out of returning to play is now open.  Flames defenseman Travis Hamonic is the first to do so, as he released a statement through his agency Titan Sports 365 (Twitter link) indicating that he will not be participating for family reasons.  His daughter has had a significant battle with a life-threatening respiratory virus in the past while Hamonic has a new baby boy as well so he is erring on the side of caution.

Following the announcement, Flames GM Brad Treliving issued the following statement:

Earlier this evening Travis called me to inform us that he has decided to opt out of the NHL Return to Play Program. Travis explained that due to family considerations, he has made the difficult decision not to participate in the Stanley Cup Qualifier and Playoffs.

While we will miss Travis in our line-up, we understand and respect his decision. Our focus remains on preparation for training camp and our upcoming series in the NHL Qualifying Round.

Hamonic’s absence will be a notable one as, when healthy, he is one of Calgary’s most effective defensive blueliners.  He logged more than 21 minutes a night this season including a team-high 3:06 per night on the penalty kill on a unit that was inside the NHL’s top ten.  Their trade deadline additions of Derek Forbort and Erik Gustafsson will become that much more important now from a depth perspective, especially with the potential hesitance to bring back Juuso Valimaki.

As for Hamonic, the 29-year-old has now played his final game before being eligible to hit unrestricted free agency in October.  Him opting out shouldn’t hurt his market at all as his reputation of being a strong stay-at-home defender is well-known and earned so he should still be among the second tier of rearguards that should garner considerable interest this offseason.

Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

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While there hasn’t been any activity on the ice lately, there has been plenty of news recently off of it as the NHL continues its preparations for games resuming in August, the bizarre Draft Lottery results, a new CBA agreement in place, and much more.  With that in mind, it’s time for another edition of the PHR Mailbag.

Our last mailbag was split into two parts – among the topics in the first one was free agency and the impact the salary cap freeze may have on the open market while the second discussed Seattle and the draft, among other topics.

You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter or by leaving a comment down below with the mailbag running on Saturday.

NHL To Change Qualifying Offer Rules

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Bridge contracts have often been back-loaded in the past to ensure a higher starting point for a qualifying offer.  For example, a player making $2.5MM in year one and $3MM in year two would have a qualifying offer of $3MM.

That element was used more liberally last summer with several players taking significantly lower payments up front to crank up the salary in the final year to yield a higher qualifier down the road.  San Jose’s Timo Meier is the most notable of those as he has a $6MM AAV on his four-year deal but a $10MM salary in the final season that becomes the required offer to retain his services (barring an early extension beforehand).

That caught the attention of the league and they are changing the rule as a result.  Thomas Drance of The Athletic reports (subscription required) that the Memorandum of Understanding for the CBA that is currently working its way through the ratification process includes a tweak to the qualifying offer rules.  Instead of being based on the salary in the final year of the contract, it will now be based on the lower of the salary of the final season of the deal or 120% of the AAV.  For Meier’s situation, had his deal been signed under this new policy, his qualifying offer would be $7.2MM (120% of $6MM) instead of $10MM, the final-season salary. However, this does not overwrite the qualifying offer rules on current contracts so for players like Meier, the old rule will still be in place.

It may seem like a small move on the surface but this has the potential to really affect short-term deals being signed off of entry-level contracts.  Given the decreasing escrow percentages in the CBA, players are likely going to show more interest in back-loading deals.  Under the old system, that means even more players with inflated qualifying offers and with the salary cap progression expected to slow for a few years, this had the potential to do some damage to a team’s cap structure down the road.

Now, players will still have the ability to back-load contracts to shield themselves as best as possible in the new escrow structure but teams will have a bit more protection from a salary cap standpoint if 120% of the AAV checks in lower than the salary in the last year.  It also may result in an increase in short-term bridge deals rather than the three-year and four-year pacts some have chosen to sign in recent years as well as without the buffer of the much higher qualifying offer at the end, the temptation to go with those should be lessened.  The change itself is seemingly rather small in nature (from salary to AAV percentage in only some cases) but it could certainly shift how things are done in restricted free agency as soon as this offseason.

Metropolitan Notes: Devils, Kakko, Penguins, Provorov

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While the Devils ultimately opted to give Tom Fitzgerald the full-time GM role, at least two other executives received strong consideration for the position.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Leafs assistant GM Laurence Gilman and former Kings assistant GM Mike Futa received multiple interviews for the role and were considered serious candidates for the position.  Meanwhile, Fitzgerald noted in a conference call with reporters that current assistants – including now-former interim head coach Alain Nasreddine – will have an opportunity to speak to Ruff about whether or not they’ll stick around, relays ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski (via Twitter).

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Rangers winger Kaapo Kakko is among those that the NHL could deem ineligible to return for medical reasons due to his diabetes but his agent Andy Scott told Greg Joyce of the New York Post that the rookie still intends to suit up against Carolina. Players have the right to appeal if league doctors rule them ineligible and this would suggest that Kakko would go that route if it comes to it.
  • While there will be a few days after the ratification of the CBA for players to opt out of participating in the NHL’s return this season, Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes that no Penguins player yet has given head coach Mike Sullivan any indication that they’re thinking about doing so. Pittsburgh will take on Montreal in the best-of-five play-in round.
  • Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov received the Barry Ashbee Trophy as Philadelphia’s top defenseman as voted on by local media, notes Ed Barkowitz of the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer. 2019-20 was a resurgent season for the 23-year-old as his offensive numbers rebounded to a respectable 13 goals and 23 assists in 69 games after posting just 26 points in 82 games the year before; his seven power play tallies led all NHL blueliners.  Provorov, who logged just under 25 minutes a game to lead the team, will be wrapping up the first year of his six-year, $40.5MM deal, one that looked a little expensive at the time but looks better now after the season he had.

Offseason Keys: Detroit Red Wings

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The offseason has arrived for at least seven teams that were not invited to take part in the play-in round that’s slated to begin in early August.  With that in mind, it’s time to kick off our Offseason Keys series for the teams that are on the outside looking in.  Next up is a look at Detroit.

It hasn’t been a good last twelve months for the Red Wings.  After finishing 28th in points in 2018-19, they took a step backwards and had a terrible season, one that saw them allow the most goals and score the fewest.  Not surprisingly, that particular combination saw them in last place when the regular season was called.  Things weren’t better in the Draft Lottery either as they fell as far as they were allowed to, dropping from first to fourth in the order.  With that negativity out of the way, here is what Detroit will need to accomplish to have a successful offseason.

Find A Long-Term Goaltending Solution

For years, Jimmy Howard has been entrenched between the pipes in Detroit.  But that time has all but certainly come to an end after posting a 4.20 GAA with a .882 SV% in 27 starts this season.  He lost all but two of those games.  If that type of performance somehow isn’t enough to scare GM Steve Yzerman off, Howard is also now 36.  On a rebuilding team, a goalie that age can’t be part of the long-term solution.

Neither can Jonathan Bernier even though he had a pretty good year all things considered with a 2.95 GAA and a .907 SV% in his 46 appearances.  Those numbers aren’t great but given the team in front of him, he did okay.  He’ll turn 32 next month and while he’s signed for next season to fill part of their goaltending tandem, he is more of a platoon option at this stage of his career instead of a full-time starter.  He can be a piece of the puzzle but not the key one.

There are going to be a handful of starting goalies that hit the open market in November, barring any extensions to stick around.  Yzerman has ample cap space at his disposal with just over $46MM in commitments for next season to 11 players so there is plenty of wiggle room to work with.  They should be showing considerable interest in each of those options.

Detroit could also take a look at Yaroslav Askarov in the draft in October.  He’s widely considered to be the top goalie available and one of the better ones to be available for a while.  However, drafting goalies early is often considered a risk and selecting him fourth would be well above where his rankings suggest he should go.  However, the Red Wings went ‘off the board’ a bit last year with defenseman Moritz Seider so taking their guy earlier than expected is something they could certainly do which would free them up to look a veteran platoon option to hold things down while Askarov works his way into being NHL-ready.

New Deal For Mantha

Two years ago, Anthony Mantha signed a bridge contract coming off his entry-level deal.  The decision made sense as he hadn’t quite established himself as a consistent top liner.  There were flashes of him living up to his potential but other times where he wasn’t making a big impact.

That started to change last season as he became a bigger threat, matching his career high offensively from the season before despite missing 15 games due to injury.  He was on pace for an even better performance this season except that knee and lung issues limited him to just 43 games before the pandemic hit.  That’s not the best leverage heading into talks for his next deal even with salary arbitration rights.

The salary landscape certainly doesn’t help either.  The freezing of the salary cap is not conducive to handing out the big-money deal that Mantha was certainly hoping to get and with his platform year being basically cut in half, this feels like a situation where there is a lot of work to do.

From Mantha’s standpoint, another short-term deal may be desired.  If he does that, stays healthy, and is able to continue his offensive improvement, he’ll be well-positioned a year from now to cash in, even with the cap limitations still in effect.  In the end, he’d probably come out with more money than he’d get by signing a long-term deal now.  Of course, a deal that buys out several UFA-eligible years is certainly Yzerman’s preference to help ensure that one of their pillars will stick around.  Getting this done should be at the top of his to-do list in the coming months.

Rebuild The Back End

Of the eight defensemen that were on Detroit’s roster to end the season, three are unrestricted free agents that almost certainly won’t be back in Jonathan Ericsson, Trevor Daley, and Cody Goloubef (who was added on waivers less than three weeks before their season ended).  Mike Green (traded to Edmonton) is already gone.  Needless to say, there are some vacancies that need to be filled.

Filip Hronek looks like a long-term piece and Seider, though not yet ready to play in their top four, should get there eventually as well.  After that, there are some question marks.  Dennis Cholowski and Gustav Lindstrom have shown some promise but aren’t ready to take on a big role yet either while projected returnees Patrik Nemeth, Alex Biega, and Madison Bowey (RFA) are role players, not impact ones either.  There are some other prospects on the horizon but none that are ready to step in and play right away.

As a result, there are a few spots up for grabs and they can’t all be filled internally.  Whether it’s the free agent market, trades, or both, the Red Wings need to make a splash or two to give their defense corps a significant boost.  If they can’t accomplish that, it may not matter who they have between the pipes in the end.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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