Pro Hockey Talk’s James O’Brien believes that the Red Wings and Senators are going about their rebuilding processes the wrong way, and as a result, O’Brien suggests some names that both teams might want to acquire to accelerate their rebuilding:
If you’re a fan of both hockey and team-building, the last few weeks have been Christmas in July. It might not be the most wonderful time of year if you demand smart team-building, though.
Plenty of teams have spent their money poorly lately, but at least two teams have really dropped the ball on boosting their rebuilds: the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators. Instead of seeing a blueprint in the Hurricanes creatively getting a first-round pick out of a Patrick Marleau trade and buyout, the Red Wings and Senators instead wasted their money on veterans who are unlikely to make much of a difference for their futures (Valtteri Filppula and Ron Hainsey, respectively).
The bad news is that Steve Yzerman and Pierre Dorion missed the boat at the most robust time. Jake Gardiner stands as a strong free agent option, yet the frenzy is now a dull rumble.
The good news is that there’s still time, as both teams have some space to take on Marleau-lite contracts, and there are contenders who need to make space. Before I list off some Marleau-lite contracts Detroit or Ottawa should consider absorbing, let’s summarize each team’s situations.
Bumpy road in Motor City: Filppula joins a bloated list of veteran supporting cast members who are clogging up Detroit’s cap, so it’s worth noting that the Red Wings only have about $5.284M in cap space, according to Cap Friendly.
The Red Wings have their normal array of picks for the next three years, along with an extra second in 2020, and also extra third-rounders in both 2020 and 2021. That’s decent, but why not buy more dart throws?
Continued with some trade-acquirable-names and UFA names of note…
And O’Brien dropped this doubt bomb on Twitter:
I’m not saying that Steve Yzerman was less shrewd, and more a figurehead, in Tampa Bay.
Definitely starting to wonder a bit, though.— James O’Brien ? (@cyclelikesedins) July 3, 2019
Screw that guy
Gardiner is a 3rd pairing defenseman on a contender. Yeah I guess we want to spend $36M/6years on him. Having Fil around for two years while Veleno, Z, Raz, Breggren…someday I’ll remember how many g’s and r’s are in his name, mature is not a bad thing. Next year maybe time for a big signing. Never heard of this guy O’Brian either.
We already have garbage in Nielsen, Helm, Abby, Ericsson, etc…The concept makes sense. But Yzerman’s plan is clearly to patiently let some of our kids develop in the AHL and wait for a bunch of these trash contracts to disappear. Notice he didn’t squander assets to have anyone absorb any of our bad deals.
A year from now we have Green, Ericsson, Daley, Howard, Franzen all off the books. Several of these guys will be flipped at this deadline for picks. At that point we’ll also have Helm down to 1-year which could be more tradeable. So we’ll have tons of cap space and roster flexibility to exploit teams trying to plan for the expansion draft, as well as get aggressive in free agency. Lots of UFA d-men to target next summer – Pietrangelo, Krug, Barrie, Vatanen, Josi, Faulk. Many will be re-upped, but a couple of these guys might get to UFA.
Very True WingNut. My fear is some of the UFA’s in their last year get resigned. Will see at next years Trade deadline?