Commentary on recent Red Wings News
Taking a quick tour of the daily papers and their coverage of all things Red Wings…
Detroit has signed former top prospect Igor Grigorenko to a one-year contract. Here are some of the key details from Ansar Khan’s article over at MLIVE.
Six years after being drafted by the Detroit Red Wings and four years after his near-fatal car accident in Russia, Igor Grigorenko is finally coming to North America.
The 5-foot-10, 209-pound left wing is no longer the Wings’ top prospect, but he still has an intriguing set of skills. Next season, the Wings will see if he’s ready to play in the NHL. The club has signed Grigorenko to a one-year entry level contract worth $858,800. He’ll be competing for a job in training camp in Traverse City this fall.
It’s a two-way contract but Grigorenko can return to Russia if he doesn’t make Detroit’s roster and spends 3 months in the AHL playing for the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Red Wings had to sign Grigorenko now or he would have likely become a free agent, although that was disputed by the Red Wings organization since Russia has balked once again at signing a transfer agreement.
Red Wings Central has an article on the signing. The article includes the contract details Khan spelled out in his article. The big concern with Grigorenko is he hasn’t fully regained the speed he had prior to a very nasty car accident in 2003. But at least he will finally come over and have a chance to show the Red Wings what he’s got. If he makes the team he is likely to start out on the fourth line.
Speaking of lines, the Red Wings have their first and third lines set for next season. That is due to Kirk Maltby signing a contract extension. The contract, which is for three years, averages out to be about $500,000 less per year than he averaged on his previous contract which was due to expire in July.
Here is how the first and third lines currently look:
Pavel Datsyuk - Henrik Zetterberg - Tomas Holmstrom
Dan Cleary - Kris Draper - Kirk Maltby
Half of those players were signed prior to hitting the free agent market this summer, so Ken Holland deserves credit for getting those deals done, as Datsyuk and Holmstrom likely would have received lucrative offers as free agents.
At the time there was some concern about signing Datsyuk to an extension, but as I pointed out in this article he compares favorably with other younger players who make a similar amount of money. Datsyuk will make roughly the same money next season that Joe Thornton currently makes. Oh, and he leads the Western Conference in the playoffs for goals scored and in points. That contract is looking like a pretty good deal right now.
Tomas Holmstrom is getting noticed for his contract as well. He extended his contract with the Red Wings for three more years at $2.25 million per year. Mike Brophy of the Hockey News wonders how many 30 goal scorers are as affordable as Homer:
In his past two seasons, the 34-year-old from Pieta, Sweden has enjoyed career-high years of 29 and then 30 goals, making it hard to believe he didn’t test the free agent waters.
…
“When I hear people talk, they say the best people in front of the net are Ryan Smyth and Tomas Holmstrom,” Holland says. “The past two years, Tomas has really taken his game to the next level. We all thought coming into the new NHL, with the new set of rules, the game was geared toward skaters and Tomas isn’t a skater. It is probably one of the weaker parts of his game, but he has really thrived.“He gets to the front of the net and he has great hands. I think he is a better scorer than people give him credit for.”
Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock has also pointed out another key contribution Holmstrom makes, which is getting the puck to his teammates so they can another shot on net on the power play. When the deal was announced I commented that Holmstrom gave the Red Wings a hometown discount. There is no question Holmstrom is a bargain and I agree with Bill over at Abel to Yzerman that Henrik Zetterberg’s contract is another unbelievable deal for Detroit.
As far as future contract extensions go, Helene St. James reports that Ken Holland would like to get Dominik Hasek and Chris Chelios to sign on the dotted line. Chelios has been pretty vocal about playing for as long as he feels like he is capable of being effective, but Hasek hasn’t said much:
“I haven’t talked to Dom,” Holland said. “We’ll talk at the end of the year, but certainly we want Dom back if he wants to play.” Hasek has declined to show his hand when asked about his future, but Chris Osgood told me last week he thought Hasek would be back.
The word out of the Red Wings organization is that Jimmy Howard will probably need one more year in Grand Rapids. Chris Osgood is signed through next season. So another season with Hasek as the starter and Osgood as his backup would seem to make sense. But it all depends on whether Hasek wants to play another year. He talked about retiring last summer but decided to come back when he was offered a contract to play in Detroit. Based on the way the season has gone so far there’s reason to believe he’d have some interest in coming back next season.
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