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Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman To Participate In Draft Remotely

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The Detroit Red Wings are fortunate that the 2020 NHL Entry Draft has a consensus top-three and the team won’t be left scrambling by any surprises when they pick at No. 4 overall. That is because the man in charge, GM Steve Yzerman, won’t actually be in the war room to take control of the situation. Detroit has announced that Yzerman will participate remotely in the draft process as a precaution after coming into contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Luckily, the team reports that Yzerman has tested negative on multiple COVID-19 screenings and is not experiencing any symptoms. However, the team will keep their top executive away from the rest of their front office staff and scouts over both days of the draft. Yzerman will communicate with his staff electronically and will still be able to conduct trade calls with rival GMs.

Detroit should already know who they are taking with the fourth overall pick and will have all night and morning to decide on their second pick, No. 32, the first of the second round on day two. At some point though, Yzerman and company will be on the clock without their selection pre-set and will have to overcome the distance to make a pick. The Red Wings own ten picks in the 2020 draft, including five in Rounds Two and Three tomorrow.

Detroit Red Wings To Buy Out Justin Abdelkader

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Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman continues his cleaning of the team’s cap situation, this time placing Justin Abdelkader on waivers for the purpose of a buyout. Abdelkader has three seasons remaining on his contract, meaning the Red Wings will incur cap charges for the next six years. Those charges will look like this:

  • 2020-21: $1,805,556
  • 2021-22: $2,305,556
  • 2022-23: $2,305,556
  • 2023-24: $1,055,556
  • 2024-25: $1,055,556
  • 2025-26: $1,055,556

There was a time not too long ago when Abdelkader looked like exactly the kind of powerhouse winger that every team was looking for. In 2015-16 he scored 19 goals and 42 points while racking up 120 penalty minutes and 207 hits. A wrecking ball on the ice with a scoring touch around the net was extremely effective and it landed him a new seven-year extension during that season.

Unfortunately when you play that style, if the goal-scoring falls off you’re suddenly just an overpaid fourth liner. That’s basically exactly what happened to Abdelkader, who almost immediately struggled under his new contract. Since the start of the 2016-17 season he has scored just 26 goals in 259 games despite averaging more than 15 minutes a night. Only 15 of those have come at even-strength and Abdelkader failed to score a single goal in his 49 games during the 2019-20 season.

That’s not to say this move comes without a bit of surprise. The Red Wings are not in any sort of cap trouble and could have kept Abdelkader on the roster as an overpaid veteran presence. But Yzerman has a clear plan to sweep out all the bad money and install his own vision of the Red Wings.

With Abdelkader gone, Dylan Larkin is the only player in the organization signed to a one-way contract through the 2022-23 season. Every other contract is either an entry-level deal or will expire by the summer of 2022. That freedom will allow Yzerman to do anything he wants to the roster, likely relying on the draft-and-develop strategy that served him so well in Tampa Bay.

Free Agent Focus: Detroit Red Wings

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With free agency now just a few days away, teams are preparing for a frenzy of action. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign.  After one of the worst seasons in NHL history, the Detroit Red Wings have a ton of work to do in order to continue their drastic rebuilding process.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Anthony Mantha – It’s hard to fathom that Mantha is already 26 years old, but here he is just days away from becoming a restricted free agent for the second time after his two-year bridge deal expires. While a long-term deal may be the best way to keep him in Detroit and avoid unrestricted free agency, Craig Custance of The Athletic wrote yesterday that a shorter-term deal is more likely in this case. Custance suggests a three-year contract could work, which would cover Mantha’s age-27, 28, and 29 seasons. The big winger has become an integral part of the Red Wings attack, tallying 82 goals in just 250 games over the last four seasons.

F Tyler Bertuzzi – If Mantha is going to come in on a three-year deal, where does that leave Bertuzzi, who actually led the Red Wings in goals this season. The scrappy, in-your-face forward is arguably the second most important player on the team currently and will be arbitration-eligible this offseason. Bertuzzi will turn 26 next season despite having fewer than 200 NHL games on his resume but is negotiating after back-to-back 21-goal seasons. A player bred for the playoffs, he hasn’t seen a sniff of the postseason yet in his career.

F Brendan Perlini – In his first three seasons, Perlini scored 45 goals in 199 games. Last year for the Red Wings, he scored one. The 12th overall pick from 2014 has almost completely fallen off the map as an NHL player and is on his third organization in two years. Still just 24 there are so many measurables you can fall in love with when you look at the 6’3″ winger, but he just hasn’t been able to put it together on the ice recently. At this point, given he is arbitration-eligible with a history of success in the NHL, it’s not even clear if the Red Wings will issue him a qualifying offer. Perhaps they take another chance on him because they’re not expected to compete this season, but time is ticking for his goal-scoring ability to reappear.

Other RFAs: F Adam Erne, F Dmytro Timashov, F Christoffer Ehn, D Madison Bowey, F Taro Hirose, D Kyle Wood

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

Frankly, the Red Wings don’t have any key free agents this offseason. GM Steve Yzerman has already been quite forthcoming with the fact that he doesn’t plan on re-signing Trevor Daley, Jonathan Ericsson or Jimmy Howard, three veterans who will have to try and find work elsewhere.

Daley, 36, has been a steady two-way defenseman in the league for years but is showing his age and is coming off a forgettable three-year stint in Detroit. He scored just seven points this season and saw his minutes drop to less than 16 minutes a night.

For the 36-year-old Ericsson things are arguably even worse, despite a long history of solid play in Detroit. He played just 18 games this season and failed to register a single point. Instead, he spent time in the minor leagues for the first time in over a decade.

Howard, who Yzerman confirmed today would not be re-signed by the team, is a goaltender won just two of his 27 appearances in 2019-20 and will turn 37 in the middle of next season. The decision to not bring any of them back is understandable for a team that wants to transition to the next wave of talent.

Other UFAs: F Kyle Brodziak, F Cody Goloubef, F Matt Puempel, F Chris Terry

Projected Cap Space

Now here’s the fun part for Red Wings fans. Even after acquiring Marc Staal and his $5.7MM cap hit (landing a second-round pick in the process), Yzerman has more than $27MM in cap space to play with. Even more, considering that $6.08MM of the $54.1MM he has committed to next season is for Henrik Zetterberg, who won’t play again and sits on long-term injured reserve. The Red Wings don’t have a single contract that extends past 2022-23, meaning he can pretty much build this team in any way he pleases. The Stanley Cup isn’t going to come next year, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it keeps growing brighter.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Detroit Red Wings Will Not Re-Sign Jimmy Howard

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Though it may not come as much of a surprise at this point, Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman confirmed today that the team will not be extending a contract to pending free agent goaltender Jimmy Howard. The team instead will be looking for a new goaltender on the free agent market, according to Nick Cotsonika of NHL.com.

Howard, 36, has never known a professional organization other than the Red Wings, a team he debuted for back in 2005. Selected 64th overall in 2003, the young netminder quickly became a top prospect and by the age of 25 was Detroit’s full-time starter. Over the years he has appeared in 543 regular season games for the team, posting a 246-196-70 record.

That record would look a lot better if it weren’t for 2019-20. Incredibly, Howard won just two of his 27 starts this season, posting a 2-23-2 record behind the worst team in the NHL. His .882 save percentage was a legitimate part of that poor performance and will be a tough number to bring up in negotiations should he try to continue playing elsewhere.

At the moment it seems like he does, after telling Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News in June that he wants to keep playing in order to prove that he is better than the numbers he put up. He was clear about his desire to stay in Detroit at that point, but also knew that a new contract with the Red Wings was unlikely.

In a market flooded with capable goaltenders, Howard may have to sell himself pretty hard to a new organization. He’ll become a free agent on October 9.

Detroit Red Wings Re-Sign Dominic Turgeon

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The Detroit Red Wings have inked another one of their minor league restricted free agents, signing Dominic Turgeon to a one-year contract for 2020-21. While the press release does not include financial details, CapFriendly reports that he will earn $750K at the NHL level and $115K in the minor leagues.

Son of former NHL star Pierre Turgeon, the 24-year-old forward has been part of the Red Wings organization since they used a third-round pick on him in 2014. Making his NHL debut in 2018, the younger Turgeon has now suited up in nine games with the Red Wings, held scoreless in each. Instead, he spends most of his time with the Grand Rapids Griffins where he scored 23 points in 63 games this season.

At this point it’s hard to imagine that Turgeon will ever become an impact player at the NHL level, but he remains a depth option for the team that can fill in if needed.

The Red Wings have a huge number of restricted free agents still to sign this offseason, including important pieces like Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi.

Atlantic Notes: Yzerman, Cholowski, Cozens, Mittelstadt

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After a acquiring a 2021 second-round pick from the New York Rangers for taking on the contract of defenseman Marc Staal and his $5.7MM contract for one more year, the Detroit Red Wings still have $27.4MM in available cap space to spend. The question becomes, will general manager Steve Yzerman take more contracts on this offseason or was this a one-time deal?

“There’s so much uncertainty in the league right now,” Yzerman said on a Zoom call to reporters after the trade (via the Detroit Free Press). “We’re heading into the draft, we’re heading into free agency, we don’t really know when we’re starting, what the landscape is going to look like next year. So we’re all kind of going into uncharted waters. And for the Red Wings, we are in a position (where) we do have cap space that we can use it. And I hope to use it wisely. But one way we would like to try and use it is to acquire future assets should any teams be in a position where they really have to move contracts and don’t have any other options.”

Detroit does have some need for some veteran options to help out their young team that finished with a 17-49-5 record and in dead last. Assuming the Red Wings keep Staal, could they find other options to help fill some of those needed players on the roster. Of course, adding more and more picks is another option for Yzerman and the Red Wings.

“Nobody wants to give up picks or prospects, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make your team better, and we’re trying to — I don’t want to say take advantage of that, but find teams that are in a position that need to do that,” Yzerman said. “And again, we’re trying to add picks or prospects, and at the same time ice a team.”

  • Sticking with the Red Wings trade, The Athletic’s Max Bultman (subscription required) writes that with the likelihood of the team keeping Staal on the team for next season after Yzerman complimented his penalty killing abilities, it could be bad news for defenseman Dennis Cholowski. The team’s 2016 first-round pick has had two years to establish himself into the team’s defensive lineup, but has been unable to do that yet, spending half a season each year in the AHL. This could be a breakout season coming up for him. However, with Danny DeKeyser and Patrik Nemeth ahead of him on the left-defense depth chart and now with Staal added in, Cholowski will likely have to earn his way into Detroit’s lineup by beating out Staal in training camp. Of course, he could move over to the opposite side of the defense as well, but there are other obstacles in his way there too.
  • With the recent addition of Eric Staal as their new No. 2 center, the Buffalo Sabres could have the luxury of easing their two young centers into the Sabres’ lineup this year, according to The Athletic’s John Vogl (subscription required). Before the trade, the Sabres had penciled in 2019 first-round pick Dylan Cozens into the No. 2 center position and 2017 first-round pick Casey Mittelstadt as their No. 3 center. With Staal in the fold for at least one more year, that plan will change. The scribe writes that it’s possible the team could move one or both of them to the wing to add some top-six depth there now that Marcus Johansson was traded to Minnesota. Cozens could move over to the right side, while Mittelstadt could play on the left, giving the team quite a few options in training camp.

Red Wings Will Not Re-Sign Jonathan Ericsson Or Trevor Daley

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The Detroit blue line will have a very different look next season. After acquiring Marc Staal from the New York Rangers yesterday, Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman spoke with the media, including MLive’s Ansar Khan, and stated that veteran defensemen Jonathan Ericsson and Trevor Daley will not return to the team next season. The pair are both unrestricted free agents and will have to test the market if they hope to extend their careers.

Detroit’s decision to cut ties with Ericsson and Daley should not come as a shock; both blue liners saw their roles greatly reduced this season. Ericsson, a career Red Wing, was buried in the AHL for much of the year, skating in just 18 games with Detroit. In those limited appearances, he posted a career-low zero points and 14:15 average time on ice. While Daley spent the whole year in Detroit, he didn’t fare much better than Ericsson. Daley recorded seven points in 43 games, failing to score a goal for the first time in his career, and a career-worst -22 rating and 15:19 average time on ice. The Red Wings had 14 different defensemen suit up this season, nine of whom are under contract or team control next season, and just added Staal and still might not be done. The team had no reason to hold on to either struggling veteran.

The question is whether Ericsson and Daley will be able to continue their NHL careers, if they even desire to do so. The 36-year-old duo each had arguably their worst season in 2019-20 and may simply be out of gas. Given the tight finances facing most NHL clubs, no team is going to commit a meaningful amount to an aging defender who brings little upside. If either one wants to extend their career, they will likely have to settle for a minimum contract. Even at that price point, the market could be limited for the former Red Wings. Daley stands a slightly better chance than Ericsson at finding employment, but there is a strong chance that we have seen the last of both blue liners in the NHL.

Detroit Red Wings Acquire Marc Staal

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Another Staal is on the move. Ten days after oldest brother Eric Staal was traded by the Minnesota Wild to the Buffalo Sabres, Marc Staal has been dealt to the Detroit Red Wings by the New York Rangers. Both teams have confirmed the trade, which will see Staal and a 2021 second-round pick go to Detroit in exchange for future considerations. This is a pure salary cap dump by the Rangers, who do not retain any salary in the trade.

Staal, 33, has only ever played for the Rangers after the team used the 12th overall pick to select him in 2005. While Staal has been a long-time stalwart for New York and even an All-Star at one point, his game has been on the decline for some time. Entering the final season of a six-year, $34.2MM contract, the Rangers have been trying to move Staal and his $5.7MM cap hit and have finally succeeded. It comes at the cost of a second-round draft pick, but will give the team much-needed flexibility to re-sign restricted free agent defenseman Anthony DeAngelo, a protégé of Staal’s, as well as RFA forwards Ryan Strome and Brendan Lemieux while maintaining the ability to improve elsewhere in free agency.

As for Detroit, this could merely be the beginning of GM Steve Yzerman weaponizing his cap space. The rebuilding Red Wings have several of their own restricted free agents to sign this off-season, but have more than enough room to work with given their projected $27.4MM in cap space. This allows Yzerman to essentially buy a high draft pick by taking on Staal’s contract, which counts for $5.7MM against the cap but is worth only $3.2MM in real dollars. Detroit now has three second-round picks in 2021 and 12 picks in the first three rounds over the next two drafts, with more surely on the way.

The one remaining question in this deal (other than the future considerations of course) is whether Staal actually plays for Detroit or not. While the young Red Wings could use his veteran presence, they already have Danny DeKeyser, Patrik Nemeth, and Dennis Cholowski on the left side and are expected to be a top suitor for UFA Torey Krug. This deal was about the second-rounder more than it was Staal, so the team could opt to buy out the remaining year of his contract and make him a free agent. Such a move would save the team just over $1MM in real dollars and over $2MM against the cap this year, with a cap penalty of about $1MM being tacked on in 2021-22. Detroit could also opt not to buy out Staal, but explore trading him with salary retained to try to recoup even more draft capital. Or Staal could simply play out his final season in Detroit. Only time will tell in this unpredictable off-season.

Red Wings Re-Sign Turner Elson

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Saturday: The Red Wings have officially announced the deal.

Friday: Detroit has kept one of their veteran minor leaguers around for another season as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the Red Wings have re-signed forward Turner Elson to a one-year, two-way deal.  The contract will pay $725K in the NHL and $115K at the minor league level.

The 28-year-old has spent the past three seasons in Detroit’s farm system with AHL Grand Rapids.  After a career year in 2018-19 that saw him put up 18 goals and 21 assists in 72 games, his production dipped to closer to his usual level with 22 points (9-13-22) in 61 contests.

Elson has just one game of NHL experience in his seven-year professional career which came with Calgary back in 2015-16 but is still carving out a decent career as a veteran AHL player.  He was slated to become an unrestricted free agent next month but instead, he has chosen to stick around where he’s comfortable, even taking a pay cut in terms of his minor league pay to do so as he made $175K on the two-way portion of his deal this past season.

Red Wings Re-Sign Sam Gagner

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Sam Gagner will be sticking around in Detroit for a little longer.  The Red Wings announced (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed the veteran to a one-year deal; Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (via Twitter) that the deal will pay $850K.

The 31-year-old was acquired back in February from Edmonton as part of the Andreas Athanasiou trade that also saw Detroit pick up a pair of second-round picks; Gagner’s inclusion was predominantly for salary matching purposes.  He was given a good chunk of ice time after being acquired as he averaged more than 15 minutes per game over six contests before the pandemic ended the season prematurely.

While Gagner didn’t live up to the $3.15MM AAV that he had on his previous contract which resulted in him spending time in the minors the past two years, he can still put up some points in the NHL.  Over those same two years where he was in the AHL at times, he combined for 12 goals and 14 assists in 74 games while notching 31 points in 74 contests in 2017-18.

Accordingly, the deal carries a bit of upside for Detroit.  It won’t take much production to justify that price tag and if other young players push Gagner out of a roster spot at some point, it’s a deal that can be buried in the minors without any cap penalty for the Red Wings.

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