MLive’s Ansar Khan posted his weekly mailbag feature today, and Khan is asked whether the Red Wings will be active in free agency. For the first time in a long time, Khan suggests that the Red Wings may finally get behind their own youth movement…mostly…
Now they’re rebuilding and might be more inclined to fill with prospects who might be ready, like Evgeny Svechnikov and/or Michael Rasmussen at forward and one of Filip Hronek or Joe Hicketts on defense.
General manager Ken Holland said he hopes to see between two and five young players on the roster during the course of the season (who weren’t on the 2017-18 season-opening roster).
They’ll sign a free-agent goaltender to either compete with Jimmy Howard for the No. 1 job or serve as the back-up. They would like to re-sign defenseman Mike Green. Other than that, why bother dipping into the thin free-agent pool, especially if it would require a multi-year commitment? Give the younger players an opportunity.
I cringe when I hear that Mike Green might be re-signed. I understand that the Wings don’t have any other defensemen with Green’s puck-moving abilities (even if the Wings have to deal with Green’s so-so defensive play)…
But Green’s 32, and he’s not going to take that much of a discount on the $6 million he earned this past season…
During a summer in which the Wings could, say, make a pitch for 28-year-old John Carlson–or, perhaps better, do nothing at all and “give the younger players a [real] opportunity” to play, I’d rather see the Wings embrace the rebuilding effort and see what Joe Hicketts, Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak can do, hiccups of adjusting to the NHL included.
Khan continues, discussing Sulak, Matt Puempel and Kaden Fulcher.
For the record, the free agent market for back-up goalies isn’t particularly good this summer,
OK George … I’ll do you one better and say I cringed when the Red Wings first signed Mike Green as a UFA and have always felt his chaotic style of play did more harm than good for this team. I too would like to pass on him this coming season and see what Joe Hicketts, Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak can do for the first 10 games or so in actual regular season games. Like I said in a previous post, the only Dmen that should stay from last seasons team are Daley, DeKeyser, and Kronwall with Jensen as a 7th Dman rotating in when they want to rest Kronners knee etc.
As for a backup goalie UFA signing … put me down for Jaroslav Halak. You’re going to ask why and all I can say is it’s just a gut feeling. He’s 32 and knows what it takes to be a good NHL goalie. He’s had plenty of good seasons with Montreal and St. Louis … he’s got plenty of playoff experience … I think he’s got a few more good years left … just a hunch.
No wonder there have been mentions of Carter Hutton in the press – he’s really the only name that jumped out from that – helpfully linked Capfriendly list.
Halak can still get hot, but it seems to happen less and less and he’s
often had injury issues, too. I’m assuming he’d be an easier get for a rebuilding team like Detroit. One that still seems invested in Howard.
Maybe none of this matters. The goal is to compete hard and develop players. It can’t really be to have a goalie(s) who aren’t part of the future anyway, standing on their heads and adding unneeded points.
But a competent goalie – yes. As we all know, from the lowest rec leagues on up, if no one trusts the goalie, people start playing each other’s positions and team trust and structure fall apart. You need to have a solid enough backstop to allow the young guys to play their games – learn to be responsible, but also not play in fear every mistake will be a goal.