The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton discusses three “burning questions” which the Red Wings face after the first day of free agency, including an interesting take on the Red Wings’ need to re-sign Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, their two big restricted free agents:
(III) Did Detroit free up enough cap space to sign Lucas Raymond AND Moritz Seider to max-term deals?
In a bit of restricted free agent news on a day generally devoted to the UFAs, the Montreal Canadiens signed the 2022 number one overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky to a massive eight-year, $60.8 million extension. What does that have to do with the Red Wings? Simple, it’s a reminder that to sign a young star to an eight-year extension, you have to offer that player a higher AAV than their hitherto performance actually justifies. Slafkovsky is coming off a nice encouraging developmental season, but at just 50 points, he would hardly seem a candidate for such a robust raise if that raise were for the next two or three seasons instead of the next eight. Was a quiet July 1 and the cap-clearing Jake Walman trade a bid to set the stage for eight-year extensions for Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond? We knew going into the summer those deals would be Yzerman’s most important piece of business. The question was always term and dollars, not whether the two would stay. Now it’s about time to answer that question, and it appears Detroit may be better equipped to max-term contracts, though of course that requires willingness from Seider and Raymond too.
Stockton continues, and he’s right–the Red Wings’ cost for Raymond probably went up due to the Slafkovsky’s overly generous contract.
I also want to say that it’s really great to have Sam and Connor Eargood on the Red Wings’ beat at the Hockey News. They’ve been a great addition to the Red Wings coverage out there!
