MLive’s Ansar Khan examines several of the Red Wings’ free agent targets ahead of the opening of the unrestricted free agency period, which begins on Tuesday at 12 PM EDT.
Khan emphasizes the Red Wings’ defensive targets, as he believes Detroit needs to shore up its blueline, first and foremost:
Aaron Ekblad, 29, Florida: The Panthers re-signed center Sam Bennett, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, and have roughly $11 million in cap space with 17 players signed. That won’t be enough to retain their two remaining high-end free agents, Ekblad and Brad Marchand. The Panthers might have anticipated losing Ekblad, the top overall pick in 2014 who’s spent his entire career in Florida, with their trade-deadline acquisition of Seth Jones. Ekblad (6-4, 220) would bring some offensive ability and physicality to the Red Wings’ blue line. As a right-shooter, he’d probably be paired with the lefty Edvinsson. Ekblad is a Windsor native who grew up a Red Wings fan, which might not help but certainly doesn’t hurt. He is coming off an eight-year deal with an average annual value of $7.5 million.
Vladislav Gavrikov, 29, Los Angeles: Kings GM Ken Holland said Saturday on the NHL Network that he’s not close to a deal with Gavrikov, a big, left-shooting defender (6-3, 220) who is coming off a 30-point, plus-26 season and a contract with an AAV of $5.875 million). He would probably replace Chiarot on the top pairing with Seider. The New York Rangers are reportedly interested in him.
Continued (paywall); at this point, the 2025 free agent class is so thin that I wonder whether the Wings will be able to do more than address one particular roster concern during free agency.
The Wings may be able to bolster their blueline or their forward corps, given how many teams are competing for a small number of near-elite players. Most of the teams that are looking have some salary cap space, too, so the prices for the top free agents are going to be high as well.
As Wings GM Steve Yzerman stated this past weekend, it’s entirely possible that the Wings may not sign any free agents, and consider making a post-free agency trade instead.
It would surprise me if the Red Wings re-signed any of Alex Lyon, Craig Smith, Tyler Motte or Jeff Petry, the team’s UFA’s-to-be, and while it’s going to be relatively easy for the Wings to spend given their PuckPedia-estimated $18.41 million of salary cap space, Detroit has to re-sign RFA’s Jonatan Berggren, Albert Johansson and Elmer Soderblom as well.
My best guess at this point is that the Wings sign a second-tier free agent defenseman, that they consider whether to sign a top-six forward, and that the team may be more serious about making a post-free agency trade than any of us assume.
