You basically know this if you’ve been reading the blog, but The Fourth Period confirms that the Red Wings are still in negotiations with Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider regarding contract extensions for the pair of restricted free agents:
As TFP’s David Pagnotta reported last week, conversations between the Red Wings and the camps of both Raymond and Seider are ongoing, and the team is focused on trying to sign both players to long-term deals.
While the mindset of a long-term contract for each player is still present and contract discussions are still fluid, neither player is believed to be close to a new deal, as of Tuesday afternoon. In the same breath, none of the parties involved appear concerned, either.
“Still grinding, no change,” one source tied to the Red Wings with knowledge of the negotiations told TFP on Tuesday.
It is unclear what either player is specifically asking for on a long-term, eight-year deal, though an average annual value of at least $8 million for each seems to be part of the projections, with Seider commanding a higher AAV, possibly north of $9 million.
The Red Wings have just over $17.648 million in cap space, and also need to sign restricted free agent forward Jonatan Berggren to a new deal, as well – though that contract is not nearly as complicated as Raymond or Seider’s and is expected to be done in time for training camp.
Contract negotiations will continue throughout the week, and while talks can pick up significant momentum with one phone call, neither side is believed to be at that point just yet.
Continued; again, both Raymond’s agent, Peter Werner (to HockeySverige.se), and Raymond himself (to GP.se’s Johan Rylander) explained that there is no ill will toward the Red Wings, and that all sides want to get a contract done ASAP.
We have also been able to confirm through the two aforementioned articles that Raymond is still at home in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Seider is at home in Mannheim, Germany (per HockeyWeb.de’s Timo Helfrich) and they will remain there until their contracts are finalized.
