A salary cap conundrum is understandable if you’re a team that’s just won back-to-back Stanley Cups like the Pittsburgh Penguins, or multiple Cups in recent years like the Chicago Blackhawks.
If you want to keep the band together if you want to keep the winning rolling, so you’re stars have got to get paid. And that means sacrifices must be made in other areas.
However, if you are a team that hasn’t won a Cup in nearly a decade, and missed the playoffs last season, yet you find yourself over the cap, well, that’s just inexcusable.
Which brings us to the Detroit Red Wings. Currently, the Wings sit with $77.5 million in salary heading into the 2017-18 NHL season, already over the $75 million salary cap limit and with restricted free agent forward Andreas Athanasiou, a key part of the team’s future, still requiring a new contract.
The reasons behind this financial oversight are many, and none of them should be considered worth the headache. Detroit must pay $2.56 million to free-agent flop Stephen Weiss, who was bought out two years ago. There’s also forward Johan Franzen (concussion), who is on long-term injured reserve. The Wings can anticipate approximately $3.9 million in cap relief from Franzen’s deal, but even with that discount, they would still be at $73.6 million, with Athanasiou unsigned, and some wiggle room necessary for recalls from the AHL when a player goes on the short-term injury list.
Long-term pacts agreed to with players such as forwards Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm and Luke Glendening, as well as defensemen Jonathan Ericsson and Danny DeKeyser, have contributed to this salary cap sludge pile.
It’s all combined to create a scenario where the Wings have too much money on the books and not enough players, not exactly a winning formula.
It’s a sad state of affairs that Detroit’s best hope for cap relief is likely going to be a serious injury to a Red Wings player. Players who underwent offseason surgery, including Ericsson (wrist), Glendening (ankle) and forward Tomas Tatar (shoulder) are all expected to be ready to go on opening night of the regular season. Defenseman Ryan Sproul, who suffered a late-season ACL injury, might be the only possibility right now to begin the year on IRL.
Detroit’s game plan is to carry 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders on its 23-man roster, but that might be a pipe dream unless the Wings find a way to shed salary.
“If everybody is healthy when we get to opening day, we’ll probably have to make a move,” Holland admitted to MLive.com. “I’m anticipating we’ll be over (the cap) by a little bit.”
That might mean the club will be forced to play with a smaller roster if they can’t trade a player to find cap relief, or they may even be forced to expose an NHL player to waivers in order to slide under the cap.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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