The Detroit News’s John Niyo penned a thoughtful column regarding the Red Wings’ free agency plans this evening, touching upon the usual names attached to the Wings–Vincent Trocheck, Andrew Copp and Ondrej Palat as useful UFA additions–before suggesting that Steve Yzerman may very well go “bargain hunting,” seeking unqualified restricted free agents like Dylan Strome (or Dominik Kubalik?) before ending with this wise summation:
Yzerman has worked methodically to give himself the flexibility he has now. Outside of the entry-level contracts for Seider and Lucas Raymond, there are just a handful of players on the Wings’ current roster with contracts that extend beyond the upcoming season: Jakub Vrana, Fabbri, Michael Rassmussen, Filip Hronek and the newly-acquired Husso.
The expectation is Larkin will join them in the coming months, as the Wings lock up their captain and highest-paid player with another long-term extension. Bertuzzi, coming off a 30-goal season, also is headed into a contract year and says he wants to stay in Detroit, but past negotiations with his camp haven’t gone smoothly, so we’ll see how that plays out.
Some of this cap space will be spent on Detroit’s own free agents as well. Zadina and Jake Walman both received qualifying offers ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, and Yzerman said he’s open to bringing back some of the veteran UFAs in time.
But the Wings’ GM also can use it to help now and later, offering to help other teams offload problematic contracts for a fee in future assets. He did it with Marc Staal in a lesser deal a couple of years ago, acquiring the veteran defenseman from the Rangers along with a second-round pick he later flipped in a 2021 draft-day trade to land goalie Sebastian Cossa. And it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him do it again this summer. The Flyers, for example, are a prominent suitor for top free agent Johnny Gaudreau, but may need to move the final year ($7 million) of James van Riemsdyk’s contract to make that happen.
Whatever happens this week, though. rest assured: There’ll be more to come. A lot more.
