The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted seven “thoughts” regarding the Red Wings’ first-day-of-free-agency moves. Among them:
It shouldn’t be lost here that signing Compher as a top-nine Swiss army knife makes the Red Wings deeper. Detroit badly needed a right-shot center, too, and Compher can be that, whether it means playing down the middle full-time or by playing on Copp’s wing and taking draws from the right dot.
He should make the Red Wings harder to play against in general.
But the price was not small, and even after adding Compher and 21-goal scorer Daniel Sprong, Detroit is still without that true top-level scorer it needs. It was always going to be tricky on a free-agent market this thin, but whether it was on the UFA market or by trade, top-six firepower was the key need going into today. And right now, Detroit’s approach seems to have been to fill by committee.
It would have been one thing to take that route as a bridge to next summer’s free agent class, but giving Compher five years complicates that, and is a bit hard to square with recent comments.
Just last week, Yzerman said, “Seven- and eight-year contracts are a risk at any age. And some of them can turn out to be good. But if you look at the history of them, the majority of them don’t work out. So, very careful on how many of those we hand out, and who you hand them out to.”
Continued (paywall); I’m fairly certain that the Wings will have to make a trade to add what they’re looking for.