Take a look at the Red Wings contracts on Cap Friendly here
If you look at the number of standard player contracts this year(48) you will see a significant drop off to next year (26). The NHL roster number goes from 23 to 10 (and then 3,2,0). In short, every contract on this team is up in just a few seasons. But there are 22 up just this year. Here is the list of players who will be UFA after this year:
Mike Green, Alex Biega, Trevor Daley, Jimmy Howard, Jonathan Ericsson, Johan Franzen for the NHL. AHL - Elson Turner, Matt Puempel and Chris Terry. For the NHL, 4 defensemen (though big E is in GR) and a goal tender. Franzen is obviously on LTIR, but his number is officially off the books after this year.
It is difficult to imagine anyone but possibly Biega(?) being re signed of that D group. As for Howard, I can’t begin to guess.
For the RFA group I’m going to list them all together: Mantha, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, Erne, Hirose, DeLaRose, Perlini, Ehn, Bowey, Kuffner, Svechnikov, Turgeon, Kaski and Saarijarvi. That is a lot of contracts to negotiate.
The purpose of this is two fold. One, to lay out just how many discussions Steve Yzerman will be having. The front office seems relatively quiet right now. In fact, we’re not hearing much of anything outside of coaches and players. The second purpose is to point out how much potential change could occur between this season and next.
Training camp was exciting this year. Guys were battling, the prospects were coming off of a win at the tournament in Traverse City. Our newly drafted first rounder was opening eyes and seemed to have the potential to crack the opening night lineup. That all feels like a long time ago. The hope, even of the first few games played, seems to have diminished a bit. Critics will say the team has “come back down to earth…. Just 15 games into the season it seems like things are going the way most pundits seem to have predicted. A glance at these numbers brings some form of clarity to see past the din.
I don’t remember a time where this many players were “playing for their jobs…. Thus far, Mantha and Bertuzzi seem to be on track for the raise we all assumed would come. Athanasiou is having a really slow start. Svechnikov is certainly on track for an extension. Everyone else seems to be in flux. Erne seems to be a solid 4th line player, but Hirose is reeling far from expectations. So much of that list seems to be a question mark.
The upcoming spring will be busy. We could very well see trades made to contenders for players that probably won’t be returning. While it is difficult to see Yzerman signing any current UFA defensemen for another stint, it would be unwise to have a completely “green… blue line. It is in the realm of defense where I would look to see a trade to bring in a younger “veteran… while allowing prospects to battle for spots.
Steve Yzerman has immense flexibility. Helm, Filppula and Glendening all have one more season after this and they too hit UFA status. Under the old system, you could count on some number of re signings just to keep some more familiarity. With the new group at the helm, things could get very interesting.
So far only Mantha has the ability to really squeeze for a much bigger paycheck. Bertuzzi isn’t far behind. Other than that, management has all the leverage for a team that’s not performing well. It will be interesting to see how much turnover this group will see.
Thanks again to everyone who stops by to read or comment. Keep it coming!
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