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As expected, the Detroit Red Wings announced via their website, that winger
Gustav Nyquist agreed to a two-year contract with the club on Tuesday morning:
The Red Wings are all ready for training camp after agreeing to a two-year contract with forward Gustav Nyquist, who was a restricted free agent.
Nyquist was the last of the Red Wings’ free agents to re-sign with the club. Detroit now has 15 forwards signed to one-way contracts, and that doesn’t include Tomas Tatar. In all, Detroit has 23 players under one-way contracts. Defenseman Danny DeKeyser is also on a two-way deal.
According to a report on NHL Radio, the Nyquist contract is worth $950,000 per season.
The 23-year-old Nyquist produced three goals and three assists in 22 regular-season games with the Red Wings during the lockout-shortened season. He also registered 23 goals and 37 assists in 58 games with Detroit's AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids. The former fourth-round pick also scored two goals and five points in 14 Stanley Cup playoff games.
A former two-time Hobey Baker Award finalist at the University of Maine, Nyquist produced seven points in 10 postseason games during the Griffins’ run to the Calder Cup championship.
Training camp begins Sept. 12 in Traverse City.
The cap hit figure of $950,000 is essentially where many expected Nyquist to be after witnessing what
Joakim Andersson signed for a couple weeks ago. Red Wing fans have to be very happy that
Ken Holland was able to get both Nyquist and Andersson signed to very reasonable contracts following their solid performance making up 2/3 of the team's energetic 3rd line in their playoff run last spring.
So where does that leave the Red Wings going forward???
As per CapGeek, the Wings are approximately $637,879 over the salary cap if/when bonuses for
Daniel Alfredsson,
Danny DeKeyser and
Tomas Tatar are deferred until 2014-15.
The team can wait until 5 PM ET on September 29th to get cap and 23-man-roster compliant
With 16 forwards in the fold and
Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press
suggesting in her article that Detroit still has intentions of re-signing
Daniel Cleary, it would appear Detroit needs to make room to open up three roster spots, if they in fact do go forward and re-sign Cleary.
The Red Wings can take solace in the fact they do have options available as a last resort in sending DeKeyser and Nyquist down to the AHL without the fear of losing them on waivers. Although the Red Wings do not want to select this route, if they are unable to move any other players and hesitant to outright waive them, Detroit can send these two youngsters to Grand Rapids for the early part of the campaign and allow them to log heavy minutes in all situations.
This option is not available with
Tomas Tatar, who has exhausted all options of being sent down without having to clear waivers. Following his Calder Cup MVP performance last spring, along with former Red Wing execs
Jim Nill and
Steve Yzerman out there, there is no way Tatar gets sent down as he would undoubtedly get claimed.
As a result, the obvious candidates to attempt to get moved and/or waived are
Cory Emmerton ($533k cap hit),
Jordin Tootoo ($1.9 million cap hit) and
Patrick Eaves ($1.2 million cap hit).
Mikael Samuelsson MAY become a trade possibility if the Red Wings eat a significant portion of his $3 million salary for his final year of his contract.
The other reason why a move may not take place until mid-September at the earliest is because the Red Wings are still awaiting word on the health and status of
Darren Helm. Although he is skating this summer, the Red Wings likely won't have a definite word one way or the other on Helm until training camp begins in mid-September. As a result, there could be hesitancy in moving Emmerton prior to that, given Detroit's lack of depth down the middle.
If Helm is unable to play, the Wings could get cap relief by placing Helm and his $2.125 cap hit on long-term injury reserve.
As for St. James and her insinuation the club still plans to re-sign Cleary, he would need to take a significant pay cut from his $3.0 million salary ($2.8 million cap hit) in order to stay a Red Wing. That being said, Cleary might have come to the realization that most teams are having difficulty adding players with the 10% one-time reduction in the salary cap. He may be better served signing a one-year deal in the vicinity of $1 million and next summer when the cap is expected to rise, he can attempt to sign a two or three year deal if he produces a solid campaign.
Finally, not to be overshadowed or forgotten is the fact Detroit have two UFA defensemen this summer in
Jonathan Ericsson and
Kyle Quincey. The odds appear to be slim that Detroit would re-sign both blueliners who currently both make north of $3.25 million annually. In order to relieve their cap concerns, does Holland move one of these rearguards (likely Quincey) and obtain a less expensive replacement to round out their blueline group and make room for the anticipated possible return of Cleary?
With the emergence of Kindl, Smith and DeKeyser, it is apparent the Red Wings are committed going forward with these young rearguards along with a veteran presence like
Niklas Kronwall. The Red Wings obviously feel
Brian Lashoff can fill the role of a #5, 6 or 7 rearguard for this club in giving him a three-year contract last season. With young prospects like
Ryan Sproul and
Xavier Ouellet a minimum of 1-2 seasons of pro seasoning in Grand Rapids, the writing appears to be on the wall for one of Ericsson or Quincey.
We shall soon find out.
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