Wings UFAs - Same as it Ever Was
At noon tomorrow Ken Holland could be asking
himself…well, self, how did I get here?
According to Helene St. James Dominik Hasek is still close to sigining a new contract while Mathieu Schneider and Todd Bertuzzi are less likely to sign by tomorrow afternoon.
A deal with Hasek could be struck today, probably a one-year contract worth from $2 million to $2.5 million.
Hasek, 42, has said he’ll only play for the Wings but definitely wants an increase from the $750,000 he earned last season. The other three Wings will be trickier to re-sign.
The third Wing is Danny Markov. So at this point the question seems to be when they will give up on signing Schneider and turn to plan B. If he doesn’t sign by noon tomorrow what are the odds of him playing for the team again? 25%? It just seems fairly unlikely that a guy will test the free agent waters and - even if he can’t get a better deal - then he’d come back and sign with his old team. Right Sergei Federov?
Mathieu Schneider has every right to pursue the option that is best for him. My only concern is that the Red Wings move to fill the hole left by Schneider pretty quickly once the clock strikes noon tomorrow. I’m not suggesting they need to sign a guy at 12:30; I’m just wondering if they will work aggressively to fill that spot starting tomorrow so they will be in the best shape for next season.
It sounds like Ken Holland has the right idea. Here is an interesting quote from Ansar Khan’s article.
The Wings have between $13-and-$14 million to spend on a goaltender, two defensemen and a forward capable of playing on one of their top two lines. The goalie will be Dominik Hasek, who’s expected to sign a one-year deal this weekend. One of those defensemen could come from their system (Derek Meech or Kyle Quincey). They might also re-sign Danny Markov, if Schneider leaves.
“If we sign one or two of our free agents, I don’t see us able to afford any big names (in the open market),” Holland said. “If we sign three, we’re almost out of the market. If we don’t sign any of our guys we’ll be active in the market.”
$13.5 million sounds more reasonable than some of the figures that were floated in the Detroit media this week. Particularly if Detroit only gives themselves a $1 million cushion beneath the salary cap. If Hasek signs for $2.5 million [the latest number thrown out] and Kyle Quincey makes the team [$510,000] that leaves Detroit with about $10 million to sign an offensive defenseman and a scoring line winger.
There have been no rumors linking Detroit to free agent defensemen. On the one hand I like this because if there were rumors circulating it might serve to drive up the price for guys Detroit might have an interest in acquiring. But it also concerns me that the team might wait until Schneider signs a contract - with them or more likely with another team, and that they will have some difficulty finding a solid replacement.
Detroit was in the same boat last year with Brendan Shanahan, when they waited for Shanahan to ultimately decide to play for the Blueshirts. They weren’t able to find a power forward to take his place until the trade deadline when they acquired Todd Bertuzzi who still wasn’t 100% healthy from back surgery.
If Detroit either signs Danny Markov or can find an offensive defenseman who would sign for the amount of Schneider’s last contract [$3.3 million] then they could make a competitive offer for Ryan Smyth - somewhere around $6 million per year. If they don’t sign Markov they could potentially sign Todd Bertuzzi for a similar amount as Schneider made last season and use that rest of that cap space to go after a free agent defenseman. The big question through is whether there’s really a defenseman on the free agent market who is worth that kind of money.
Another option Holland alluded to that Detroit has at their disposal is to give some of their younger defensemen some ice time and see how they develop. The team could put Kyle Quincey on the third pairing with Chris Chelios and let him learn from one of the best. Jakub Kindl, Derek Meech and Jonathan Ericsson could compete for playing time. In a Central Division that doesn’t exactly look imposing it could be a good year to save money, see how the prospects look, then make a trade for a veteran d-man at the deadline if necessary. It would be a very big risk though so it is probably Detroit’s final option if they cannot find a suitable defenseman through free agency.
If Detroit cannot replace Matheiu Schneider via free agency Niklas Kronwall and Andreas Lilja will likely be the players who will need to take advantage of the opportunity presented by Schneider’s departure. Kronwall will have the opportunity to be a point producer on the power play and Lilja will likely get much heavier minutes than he got last season when he was often relegated to being the 7th defenseman.
Danny Markov Dominik Hasek Mathieu Schneider Red Wings Ryan Smyth Todd Bertuzzi4 Comments
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Good point about the Central; we might just be in an easy enough division that we can afford to develop some kids on the blueline, and save money for the deadline when we can gear up for the playoffs.
And I believe “Once in a Lifetime” was released at least 5 years before I was born, but I still caught the reference.
Geez Pete, thanks for making me feel old! Just kidding, it’s one of those songs that for some reason still gets played. I was a big Talking Heads fan back when Stop Making Sense came out.
[…] We’ve got kinder gentler blueline hands Bill and Pete have offered up their ideal situations for the Detroit Red Wings as free agents hit the market and become available for teams to bid on. One scenario mentioned by these guys probably goes well above the $50.3 million cap but they are both very intriguing options. It looks like Detroit has about $13.5 million to spend while maintaining a $1 million cushion beneath the cap. Both Dominik Hasek and Todd Bertuzzi are likely to eventually sign with the Wings once they get the dollars and length of contract settled. With that likely being the case here is my guess on what Detroit needs to do this summer. […]
[…] I’m sure some Red Wings fans would say some of the same things regarding Schneider. I’m just glad Ken Holland was ready to move when the free agent market opened. It was something I questioned just before the feeding frenzy started: Mathieu Schneider has every right to pursue the option that is best for him. My only concern is that the Red Wings move to fill the hole left by Schneider pretty quickly once the clock strikes noon tomorrow. I’m not suggesting they need to sign a guy at 12:30; I’m just wondering if they will work aggressively to fill that spot starting tomorrow so they will be in the best shape for next season. […]