The Detroit Red Wings did not sign defenseman John Klingberg to the 1-year, $7 million contract which the Swedish rearguard signed with the Anaheim Ducks for several reasons, including team fit (or the lack thereof), the team’s strength on its right side defense, cap space, and, very frankly, probably because Klingberg chose to go to Anaheim after he received their offer.
This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James offers her answer as to why Klingberg didn’t end up wearing red and white, per a reader mailbag question:
Had [GM Steve] Yzerman signed Klingberg, it would have meant jettisoning [Filip] Hronek, and Yzerman made it clear on July 14 that he wasn’t interested in being put in such a situation: “What I wouldn’t want to do is go and sign another free agent, a significant free agent, and put myself in a position where I have to trade somebody, because that’s not a good time to do it.”
Hronek is coming off a subpar season in which he struggled to adapt to losing his spot as the Wings’ top defenseman to Seider. But Hronek is five years younger than Klingberg, and has a respectable 118 points in 245 games on a team that, since Hronek entered the NHL in 2018-19, has not had as much talent as the [Dallas] Stars.
Yzerman signed Hronek for three years, $13.2 million last September. Yzerman clearly sees Hronek, drafted at No. 53 in 2016, as part of the rebuild. Hronek plays bigger than his 6-foot frame, and is a good shooter and passer.
Since being named GM in April 2019, Yzerman has been careful about the contracts he has given to free agents.
When he signed forward Andrew Copp on July 13, it marked the longest (five years) and highest annual average value ($5.625 million) for a deal, but the Wings didn’t have a second-line center. They do have two talented, young right-handed defensemen in Seider (21 years old) and Hronek (24) and with the signings of Chiarot and Määttä, now have two partners who project to strengthen the top-four corps.
Continued; I’m not certain whether Filip Hronek’s presence alone is the reason the Wings didn’t end up signing Klingberg, but I do believe that St. James hits at the nail on the head by suggesting that the Red Wings didn’t need to put themselves in a salary cap bind by signing the soon-to-be-30-year-old Klingberg.
Between the fact that he’s a right-shooting right defenseman, which the Red Wings already have, and the fact that they have to re-sign Filip Zadina and Jake Walman, the Wings didn’t need to tie their hands salary-wise…
And, quite frankly, Steve Yzerman tends to tell you what he’s thinking on the rare occasions that he does speak.
He was blunt and frank in stating that he would be more interested in pursuing a trade with a salary cap-stressed team than he would be interested in signing any more unrestricted free agents this summer, and I believe that he’s going to be good upon his word.
