NHL.com’s Dan Rosen provides an outside perspective on the Red Wings’ free agent signings via his Over the Boards mailbag:
How do you grade the Detroit Red Wings pickups on Sunday? — @Mr_Wright19
I’ll say B-minus. They’re fine. Nothing crazy. They added forward Thomas Vanek on a one-year, $3 million contract and goalie Jonathan Bernier on a three-year, $9 million contract. They also re-signed Mike Green, who did become a UFA, to a two-year, $10.75 million contract. Vanek is a scorer, so he will help the Red Wings improve from last season, when they were 28th in the NHL with 2.59 goals per game. He’ll also provide healthy competition for some of the younger players trying to earn their minutes in Detroit. Bernier paired with Jimmy Howard gives the Red Wings the goaltending depth that should allow them to compete for 82 games. They know what they’re getting from Green, who is still a good player on the power play and a threat at 5-on-5.
The Red Wings left room for further growth of their younger players including forwards Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou, Michael Rasmussen, Joe Veleno and Filip Zadina, and defenseman Dennis Cholowski.
Vanek signing is fine if we flip him at the TDL.
Green is ok
Bernier is too long a term
The real issue is the roster management. why sign Vanek instead let Ras and Zad make the roster, and give Pope a long look.
Green is ok, but only if you move out Jenson before the season and trade Daley at the TDL and give 2 young players a shot.
Bernier is a stop gap, but he could have been given 1 or 2 years tops, unless you plan to move Howard.
Other issue is that trades are hard, only for Holland, every other GM seems to be able to trade … he needs to stop overvaluing our players and allow more youth a real opportunity
I find it hard to believe that Bernier’s term is too long at that cap hit, especially when Jimmah is near the end of his contract and Detroit has pretty much 0 goalie depth.