Wings Defense restocks rather than rebuilds
Why 5 rather than 2? The future.
I stopped by Kuklas Korner as I usually do each morning to check out some of the latest articles on the NHL. I found Larry Brooks’ article from this morning to be pretty interesting. He starts off the article singing the praises of the New Jersey Devils which is completely understandable given the level of on-ice success they’ve had over the past 15 years.
The Devils always have been a unique group, as demanding of their coaches as their coaches have been of them, and in some cases, even more so. They push the margins, and if their coaches don’t push back, they find the way to inform Lamoriello that a change is needed. Even as this championship core covets independence, even as it shrinks, it requires discipline.
It is about tough love in New Jersey, and has been since Jacques Lemaire walked down the waters of the St. Lawrence Seaway to establish New Jersey as the epicenter of NHL Eastern Conference power 14 summers ago.
Great, I’m right with you. The biblical references are a bit much, particularly considering the mixed results Lemaire’s had in Minnesota, but okay. Whatever, I’ll accept your claim that Brent Sutter is the second-coming of Lemaire. Hey, it’s Sunday morning so let’s just roll with it.
Brooks then goes on to read the tea leaves regarding the contracts that Roman Hamrlik and Brian Rafalski just signed and suggests the Rangers defenseman Michal Rozsival will command a contract that pays him at least $6 million per season. Yes, the going rate for offensive defensemen who can quarterback the top power play unit is right around $6 million. Yet for some reason he’s shocked Detroit would pay $6 million per year for Brian Rafalski when Mathieu Schneider signed with Anaheim for $5.6 million [on average] per season.
Kenny Holland hasn’t made all that many mistakes running the Red Wings, but perhaps he’d like to explain why he believes Rafalski at six years, $30 million is a better buy than Mathieu Schneider would have been at two years, $11 million.
Now I can’t speak for Ken Holland and I would never presume to do so. With that being said, it’s difficult to argue with many of the decisions the Red Wings have made. I mean the only real criticism I’ve had was signing Dallas Drake, who in the best case scenario plays on the fourth line as an energy guy/cheap shot hack for like 5:00 game - when he doesn’t watch the games from the press box.
So with that being the case I typically try to understand why the organization makes the decisions they do. I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt because they don’t make bad decisions very often. So first off we can dismiss the idea they overpaid to acquire a quarterback for the top power play unit. $6 million is the going rate. Here is the dollar amount for top end offensive defensemen who have signed a new deal within the past few months.
Kimmo Timonen - $8 million [this season]
Mathieu Schneider - $5.5 million [this season]
Lubomir Visnovski - $5.6 million
Roman Hamrlik - $5.5 million
Andrei Markov - $5.75 million
This list doesn’t include Wade Redden and Brian McCabe, who both signed new deals last summer that are both in excess of $6 million per year. The dollar amount isn’t out of line, and I suspect Brooks isn’t questioning the dollar amount since Rafalski will only make about $500,000 more per year than Schneider. I suspect Brooks is focusing on the term.
Okay then, so why sign Rafalski for 5 years? I think there are at least three very good reasons.
Detroit’s Blueline becomes younger without losing skill
Mathieu Schneider is 38 so signing him for a longer term than 1-2 years is problematic. Obviously every year of that contract counts against the cap even if Schneider were to retire. That doesn’t seem likely to happen but it makes signing him a little more tricky than signing a younger player like Brian Rafalski. Rafalski will turn 34 at the start of the season, so there are no financial implications were he to retire before the end of the contract. Assuming both players play out their contract, each player will be 39 in the final year of the contract. So the Red Wings just bought themselves three extra years of a top flight defenseman in his prime at just about market rate.
Rafalski can become Detroit’s top d-man if necessary
There is an article floating around cyberspace that suggests Nick Lidstrom might be interested in signing another 2-year deal. In the article he said that he’d like to play through the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. His current contract expires this season so a new 2-year deal would fit that timeline perfectly. So if Lidstrom decides to retire following the 2009-10 season then Brian Rafalski can become Detroit’s #1 defenseman.
Mathieu Schneider has always played on the second pairing in Detroit and you’d have to think that he wouldn’t be an option at the age of 39 to move up to the top spot amongst defensemen. But Brian Rafalski was the #1 d-man in New Jersey and while it would be tough to fill Lidstrom’s skates he could capably serve as a #1 dman for the Red Wings. In this scenario he’d likely be Detroit’s top d-man for the final two years of his contract.
He’d bridge the gap for the youth movement
Jakub Kindl appears to be the heir apparent to the top spot on Detroit’s blueline. He’s currently 20 years old and has an outside shot at making the Red Wings this season. If not he’s a lock to make the team in 2008-09 as Andreas Lilja’s contract will expire and the Wings will need a top 4 dman. In this scenario Kindl would play on the top 4 with Lidstrom, Rafalski and Niklas Kronwall and would eventually move to the top of the foodchain within 5 years if not sooner.
At that point five years down the line Detroit should have a very good idea of how Jonathan Ericsson and Brendan Smith will develop. If they both meet expectations the Red Wings will have smoothly transitioned to a young and experienced blueline that features Niklas Kronwall as the old man amongst the group at the age of 31. < obligatory Chris Chelios is old joke >Unless of course Chris Chelios is still playing.< /obligatory Chris Chelios is old joke >
Brian Rafalski Mathieu Schneider Nicklas Lidstrom Red WingsNo Comments
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