This afternoon, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton examines the Red Wings’ looming contract extensions for Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider as the Auston Matthews extension–a four-year contract instead of a max-term, 8 year extension–applies to the Wings’ young stars:
So, how does all this affect Raymond and Seider?
The short answer is it’s hard to say. ELCs are mostly boilerplate, dictated by a player’s draft positioning and the Collective Bargaining Agreement; they don’t offer much insight into an individual player’s approach to contract negotiations. With that in mind, it’s difficult to say what Raymond and Seider will prioritize in their second contracts.
Neither Raymond nor Seider will be in a position to command a $13 million+ salary, but, if they want to max out their career earnings, they would both be well served to follow some portion of Mattthews’ lead and getting themselves back to free agency.
For Yzerman and the Red Wings, the challenge will be securing a healthy portion of each players prime at a number that entices them to remain in Detroit, without over-committing.
As I said from the outset, there is no serious risk of either Raymond or Seider playing elsewhere in 2024-25 (unless that is an option the Red Wings select themselves). Instead, Seider and Raymond’s next deals will be all about the money that remains to flesh out the roster beyond them.
Continued; I’m gonna be honest, with all respect to Sam, who does wonderful work every dang day:
I think that Matthews is in a very different situation as someone who is looking to continue to maximize his value as the salary cap climbs upward in the next couple of years. Raymond and Seider are still developing into star players, and they may very well sign “bridge deals” of similar length, but they don’t have the kind of leverage of one of the NHL’s brightest stars to completely dictate the term and terms of his contract.
What will happen this season, though? As Sam suggests, Raymond and Seider will be asked to afford the rest of the team some cap space to be built around them.
