The Anaheim Ducks are going to terminate the contract of 35-year-old power forward Chris Kreider today, and you’d think that the 6’3,” 231-pound might fit the Red Wings’ needs in terms of adding both secondary scoring and physicality.
Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff is here to suggest otherwise:
According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, Kreider wants to return to the East. While the Red Wings play in the Eastern Conference, Detroit really isn’t in the East geographically. And the Wings haven’t made the playoffs in a decade. For a 35-year-old player who’s never won the Stanley Cup, that could be a deal-breaker.
The Red Wings do project to have $20 million in available salary cap space. They need to save a chunk of that cash to get RFA defenseman Simon Edvinsson locked into a new pact. Even so, there should be more than enough left over to sign Kreider. He made $6.5 million with the Ducks last season.
Then again, is there anyone available to offer Kreider a contract? According to Edvinsson, no one from the club has talked to him about his contract situation since Yzerman’s removal.
If you’re Kreider, do you want to come to a team that, from the outside, appears to be in disarray?
Continued; I just don’t see the Wings signing Kreider. He wants to win right now, and the Red Wings are not a team that is perceived to be making a long playoff run at this moment.
