The Free Press’s Helene St. James surveys the free agent class of 2020 this morning, noting that the Red Wings plan on spending to some extent starting at noon EDT today:
Yzerman needs defensemen, forwards and, most glaringly, a goaltender to replace Jimmy Howard. Free agency is one way to do so, but a more fruitful method is one Yzerman already has used this offseason: Taking advantage of a team in financial distress because of the flat salary cap to acquire a player and a draft pick. Two weeks ago, Yzerman gained a second-round pick in 2021 for taking veteran defenseman Marc Staal and his $5.7 million contact from the New York Rangers.
Numerous teams are in salary cap trouble, including Yzerman’s former employer, the Tampa Bay Lightning; there’s also the Edmonton Oilers (helmed by ex-Wings GM Ken Holland), the St. Louis Blues and a handful of others.
In addition to not re-signing Howard, Yzerman has parted ways with free-agent defensemen Trevor Daley, Jonathan Ericsson and Madison Bowey, and forwards Justin Abdelkader, Brendan Perlini and Christoffer Ehn.
Yzerman touched on his approach to free agency after Wednesday’s marathon Day 2 of the draft.
“I think overall the cap being flat causes a problem for some of the cap teams,” he said. “Really good teams that have a lot of good players, they all make a lot of money, so I think it limits what they can do. And then the other teams, just the economic climate, I think will be less inclined to be really aggressive. But ultimately we’re all trying to improve our teams and we’re all at different stages. Everybody is generally motivated to do things. We’ll see.”
