Red Wings Notes: Seider, Raymond, Larkin, Defense, Goaltending
Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman met with the media today (video link) to discuss his team heading into the draft and upcoming free agency period. The biggest item on their to-do list this summer is getting new deals in place for pending restricted free agents Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond. While Yzerman was hoping to have deals in place early for those two, it doesn’t appear that will be the case. If Detroit wants to sign both players long-term, that could take up more than half of their $29.3MM of cap space (per CapFriendly) which would play a big role in their offseason spending. With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a fair bit of that money go unspent on July 1st, leaving themselves options to lock up their two key pieces.
More from Detroit:
- Yzerman confirmed that center Dylan Larkin had minor surgery for an upper-body injury sustained late in the season that kept him out of playing at the Worlds. At the moment, he hasn’t been cleared to skate although he has been training. Larkin, who averaged over a point per game this season for the first time, is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for training camp in the fall.
- The Red Wings have a deep back end on paper in terms of having plenty of veterans plus some prospects on the cusp of being NHL-ready. While Yzerman indicated that he’d like to try to re-sign pending UFA Shayne Gostisbehere, he also acknowledged that he’s not sure about bringing back the same group of blueliners next season. With Simon Edvinsson appearing to be ready for a full-time role and Albert Johansson now waiver-eligible, it seems like one way or the other, they will have to subtract from their current group in the coming weeks.
- Yzerman noted that goaltender Ville Husso is fully healthy now while fellow netminder Alex Lyon will be ready for training camp after leaving the Worlds early last month. He stated that the team will look into the goalie market but that he isn’t looking to bring in an older netminder who won’t be around in a few years, nor does he want to carry three goalies on the NHL roster full-time next season. Speculatively, that suggests they’ll likely be primarily looking for a playing partner for prospect Sebastian Cossa who should see the bulk of the playing time with AHL Grand Rapids once again in 2024-25.
Red Wings Sign Albert Johansson To Two-Way Extension
Defense prospect Albert Johansson is sticking in Motown as the Red Wings announced a one-year, two-way contract extension for the left-shot blue liner. PuckPedia reports that the deal pays $775K in the NHL, $90K in the minors, and has a guarantee of $110K.
While yet to make his NHL debut, the 2019 second-round pick is a strong candidate to make the opening night roster next season. That’s because he’s no longer waiver-exempt, and Detroit stands a high risk of losing him for nothing if they expose him to the rest of the league during preseason to send him back to AHL Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids is where the Swedish defender has spent the entirety of the last two seasons. There, the promising two-way defender has put up solid numbers, totaling 11 goals, 25 assists, 36 points, 84 PIMs, and an even rating in 119 games. It wasn’t his first taste of professional hockey, though. Johansson played the majority of the preceding three seasons in the Swedish Hockey League with Färjestad BK, where he fared well against primarily older competition with 57 points and a +10 rating in 141 games. He won a league title with Färjestad in 2022 before coming over to the Wings.
While likely not a first-unit power-play quarterback at the NHL level, Johansson is extremely cerebral with the puck and has the skating ability and hands to match. He’s solid at puck retrievals and keeping play out of his own end, remaining projectable as a second or third-pair NHL defenseman with solid possession numbers and some special teams upside.
The native of Karlstad, Sweden, was slated for RFA status this summer, although he wasn’t eligible for salary arbitration. That will change next year after one more season of professional experience.
Red Wings Undecided On Keeping Or Moving Justin Holl
- In his latest mailbag piece, The Athletic’s Max Bultman covered what the Red Wings might do with defenseman Justin Holl moving forward. He was expected to play a key shutdown role for the club this season after inking a three-year, $10.2MM deal in free agency last summer, but he wasn’t even a regular in the lineup halfway through the year. Holl played in just 38 games, posting five assists and a +8 rating while averaging 15:05 per game. Bultman thinks it may be wise to pump the brakes on any buyout/trade speculation despite the tough season, though – after all, this is the same front office that gave him the three-year commitment less than a year ago. But he does point out the Red Wings offloading winger Klim Kostin, who carries a $2MM cap hit, on the Sharks midseason. He was in a similar situation to Holl, falling into frequent healthy scratch territory after being acquired by GM Steve Yzerman last summer.
Radim Simek Signs In Czech League
It has been quite a fall lately for Radim Simek who wound up not seeing any NHL action this season. Instead of testing the open market to see what might be out there for him, he has instead elected to return home as Liberec in the Czech Extraliga announced that they’ve inked the defenseman to a three-year contract.
The 31-year-old had originally played in Liberec’s system before coming to North America for the 2018-19 campaign. Simek established himself as a regular when healthy in his first couple of years in San Jose. Then-GM Doug Wilson had seen enough to reward him with a four-year, $9MM deal with the hopes that he’d continue to improve and be able to play more regularly.
Unfortunately for the Sharks, neither of those things happened. He failed to average even 15 minutes a game over the first three years of that deal while he battled more injury trouble and found himself a frequent healthy scratch at times.
That resulted in a change of plans for this past season. San Jose elected to put him on waivers in training camp and assigned him to the AHL’s Barracuda. He played in 40 games with them, recording 16 points before being moved to Detroit at the trade deadline as a salary offset in the Klim Kostin trade. The Red Wings opted to keep Simek in the minors where he got into nine regular season games for the Griffins plus eight playoff contests, collecting three assists in that span.
Simek leaves North America with 209 career NHL games under his belt, all coming over parts of five seasons with San Jose. In that span, he had seven goals and 22 assists along with 256 blocks and 419 hits. Considering he’ll be 34 when this contract ends, there’s a good chance this is the end of the road at the NHL level for Simek but as an undrafted player, he still had a pretty good run.
Gabriel Seger Signs AHL Deal With Grand Rapids
- The Red Wings’ farm team has added one of the more intriguing remaining college free agents as AHL Grand Rapids announced the signing of Gabriel Seger to a one-year deal. The 24-year-old had a breakout showing in his final collegiate campaign, leading Cornell in scoring with 14 goals and 30 assists in 44 games although it wasn’t enough to land him an NHL deal in recent weeks.
Hypothetical Scenarios For Detroit's 2024 NHL Draft
In an article today from Max Bultman of The Athletic (Subscription Required), he theorizes three hypothetical options for the Detroit Red Wings during the 2024 NHL Draft: stay put, trade down, and trade up. After it took until the last game of the regular season for the Red Wings to be eliminated from the postseason, there are several different directions that General Manager Steve Yzerman could take in Vegas.
If Detroit stays put, one of the most common mock picks at 15th overall is Michael Brandsegg-Nygård of Mora IK in the Swedish HockeyAllsvenskan. Brandsegg-Nygard would be a very safe pick at 15th overall, given that he is one of the most mature players in the draft already, meaning it shouldn’t take him too long to crack the Red Wings roster. However, if Detroit does stay put, with a decent amount of organizational depth at the forward position, they could look for a high-risk high-reward prospect at 15th overall such as Cole Eiserman or Michael Hage.
Yzerman’s second most likely option would be to trade down a few spots to clear some cap space for the offseason. The Chicago Blackhawks and Anaheim Ducks represent likely trade options in this scenario, given the bevy of cap space each team has. The Red Wings may be able to move the 15th overall pick and Justin Holl‘s contract to the Blackhawks in exchange for the 18th overall pick, or send the 15th overall pick and potentially both Holl and Ben Chiarot to the Ducks in exchange for the 31st overall pick if they want to get aggressive.
Lastly, since the Red Wings are unlikely to trade into the top 10 of the NHL Draft, their most likely partners in a trade-up scenario would be the Philadelphia Flyers or Buffalo Sabres. With the Flyers amid their rebuild, and the Sabres unlikely to trade with a division rival, would it make sense for Detroit to move up three spots? The price would be too high for Yzerman to trade up, and they may be left with similar options with the 15th overall pick regardless.
Red Wings Could Target Goaltending This Summer
Jonas Siegel of The Athletic speculates what a potential Mitch Marner trade might look like for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Siegel points to several recent trades for Pierre-Luc Dubois and Dougie Hamilton as templates the Maple Leafs could use to get a return package for the 27-year-old Marner. Both of those trades brought young NHL-ready talent back to their respective teams, which is something that Toronto would likely covet given their competitive window.
Siegel points to the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning as teams that the Maple Leafs could potentially do business with. Carolina could dangle Seth Jarvis, Andrei Svechnikov, and Martin Necas as potential centerpieces of a return for Marner, while Tampa Bay could use Mikhail Sergachev or Brandon Hagel.
Siegel does concede that any potential Marner trade could be nixed by his no-movement clause and might be a difficult trade for Toronto to win. However, with Marner’s pending free agency status, it may be something they need to explore.
In other Eastern Conference notes:
- Max Bultman of The Athletic wonders if the Detroit Red Wings might be players in the goaltending market this summer, specifically the trade market where several high-end starters are available. Bultman writes that the Red Wings’ general manager isn’t revealing much but adds that Ville Husso’s health could nudge the Red Wings into the trade market and would be the quickest way to improve the team’s overall defense which was something that was an Achilles heel last season. Detroit missed the playoffs by the smallest of margins and adding a top-tier netminder might be the thing that gets them back into the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The team has backup Alex Lyon signed next year to a very reasonable $900K, but likely can’t count on him to duplicate his 44-game workload from this past season.
- Elliotte Friedman reported today on his 32 Thoughts podcast that the rights to Hurricanes forward Jake Guentzel are available for a mid-round pick. Friedman tells his audience that Carolina has made it known to other teams that the 29-year-old’s signing rights are available and adds that there will be a ton of interest. It was reported earlier this week that Guentzel was likely to test free agency and it makes sense for the Hurricanes to pivot and try to recoup an asset after dealing Michael Bunting, three prospects, and a second-round pick to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline to acquire Guentzel.
Updates On Three Detroit Free Agents
With plenty of news coverage surrounding free agency this time of year, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (Subscription Required) spoke to a trio of players expected to hit free agency in the upcoming weeks for the Detroit Red Wings and where things currently stand with each. LeBrun notes that all three of Lucas Raymond, David Perron, Patrick Kane, and their respective agents are set to meet with General Manager of the Red Wings, Steve Yzerman, at some point this week.
As the only restricted free agent of the players mentioned, Raymond does not have the same bargaining rights as Perron and Kane, as he is still unable to file for arbitration, let alone hit the open market. Having managed a 14-goal and 13-assist jump on his scoring from the 2022-23 NHL season, Raymond could have earned himself a long-term deal with Detroit this summer. However, considering how the contract negotiations played out between Yzerman and captain Dylan Larkin last year, the savvy General Manager will stay prudent with his available cap space. Regardless of Raymond taking a bridge or max-term contract, his cap hit should take a decent chunk out of the Red Wings’ cap for next season.
Red Wings Lose Rights To Jan Bednar, Signs AHL Contract
The New York Rangers will reportedly begin contract extension talks with superstar goaltender Igor Shesterkin when their window to do so opens on July 1st (as per David Pagnotta). The 28-year-old has one season remaining on the four-year $22,666,667 he signed in August 2021 and will likely top Carey Price’s $10.5MM AAV to become the highest-paid goaltender in NHL history. Price’s contract remains active on Montreal’s books and is followed by Sergei Bobrovsky’s $10MM AAV and Andrei Vasilevskiy’s $9.5MM AAV.
The 2022 Vezina Trophy winner saw his regular season numbers fall off as he posted a 36-17-2 record with a .912 save percentage and a 2.58 goals-against average. His biggest drop off was his goals saved above expected where he dropped by 16 goals saved down to 12.1. As pedestrian as his regular season numbers were (by his standards), Shesterkin found his game in the playoffs and was dominant in helping the Rangers to the Conference Finals. He currently sits in second place in goals saved above expected with 13.1 goals saved in just 16 games and posted a .926 save percentage.
In other Eastern Conference notes:
- Stefen Rosner of NHL.com is reporting that the New York Islanders have lost the NHL rights to 2020 sixth-round draft pick Matias Rajaniemi, however, the defenseman had previously signed an AHL deal to play with the Islanders affiliate in Bridgeport. Rajaniemi signed the AHL deal back in March and is free to sign with any NHL team, however, as Rosner points out that doesn’t happen very often. The 21-year-old has yet to suit up in North America but does have good size at 6’4” and 203 pounds.
- Max Bultman of The Athletic tweeted that the Detroit Red Wings lost the NHL rights to goaltender Jan Bednar, however, the 21-year-old quickly signed an AHL deal with the Red Wings affiliate the Grand Rapids Griffins. The one-year deal will keep the former fourth-round pick in the Red Wings organization after he spent last season in the ECHL with the Toledo Walleye. Bednar is a good size at 6’4” and 200 pounds and is very gifted athletically. By signing Bednar to an AHL deal, Detroit and Grand Rapids have an opportunity to evaluate the netminder for another season before deciding their next course of action.
Red Wings Sign Jakub Rychlovsky To Entry-Level Deal
The Red Wings have signed left winger Jakub Rychlovský to a two-year entry-level contract, according to a team announcement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Rychlovský, 23 in August, was never drafted by an NHL team but is coming off a breakout season in the Czech Extraliga that made him one of the more intriguing international free agents on the market. He’s played primarily in professional leagues in Czechia since being draft-eligible in 2019 but has only made his way to the top level consistently in the last two years.
The 5’10” winger’s 2023-24 campaign truly came out of nowhere. After failing to score double-digit goals at any level since his last season in the Czech junior system, he exploded for 26 tallies with 20 assists for 46 points in 51 games with Bílí Tygří Liberec. That led the league in goals and was good enough for second on the team in points behind veteran Tomáš Filippi‘s league-best 62.
On the heels of that upper-echelon performance, Rychlovský will try his hand in North America and attempt to earn a roster spot out of camp with the Wings. With a bevy of unrestricted free agents at the bottom of the forward lineup, there should be a decent amount of turnover, potentially creating a spot up for grabs that Rychlovský can compete for in earnest.
It’s a two-year deal, though, and he’s still quite young, so Detroit can be patient with Rychlovský if he’s not ready for NHL action right away. It’s unclear if there’s a European assignment clause baked into his ELC, but if not, he’s a candidate to begin next season in the minors. He joins Jonatan Berggren, 2022 top-ten pick Marco Kasper and 22-year-old Swedish winger Elmer Söderblom as U-24 forwards likely competing for spots in Detroit’s bottom six.
Rychlovský will be a restricted free agent when his deal expires after the 2025-26 season.