The talk of Red Wings Twitter today (see: the Winged Wheel Podcast‘s gents, and The Athletic’s Prashanth Iyer) in light of the signing of Vladislav Namesnikov, combined with Tyler Bertuzzi’s filing for arbitration, is this:
Should the Red Wings use their significant amount of cap space to buy out the last two years of Frans Nielsen’s contract?
Nielsen has a $5.2 million cap hit over the next two seasons, but, per CapFriendly, Nielsen is actually only owed $5 million this season ($2.5 million in a signing bonus and $2.5 million in actual salary) and then $3 million ($1.5 million in a signing bonus and $1.5 million in actual salary) for the 21-22 season.
Buying out the 36-year-old would cost the Wings, again, per CapFriendly, the signing bonuses (those have to be paid in full) for this season and next season, plus $666,666 per season for four years, or approximately $6.6 million in total to buy Nielsen out.
He’d be on the Wings’ cap for 4 more years, too, but the Wings get a 48-hour window to buy players out whenever a player files for arbitration, after the arbitration hearings end, and lots of fans want to see Nielsen gone.
He’d cost the Wings, again, per CapFriendly, $3.4 million against the cap this season, $4.4 million against the cap next season, and $667 K against the cap for two more years, so this is not a cheap buyout money-wise or cap-wise.
It should also be noted that the one interview I did see with Nielsen from Denmark indicated that he was training with his hometown team, the Herning Blue Fox, hoping to redeem himself over the last two years of his deal, so he is motivated to play.
Would you buy Nielsen out?
Don’t buy him out. 2 more years on the books is better than 4 no matter the amount in the latter years. Loan him to DEL and pay him for these final 2 years if anything.
Agree. Bring him back, if he can’t win a spot send him to GR.