Rejoint: juill. 2018
Messages: 927
Mentions "j'aime": 259
My only fault is with Bowey getting a large raise and an extra year of term--he is arbitration eligible so he could elect to take the team to arbitration but then the Wings get to select the 1 year term (the vice versa is true too). But remember Bowey was waived by the Wings not too long ago. He is error prone defensively and has yet to show any real sustained offense at his position. Gustav Lindstrom, Dennis Cholowski, and Moritz Seider have all but passed him on the depth chart. Add in DeKeyser, Hronek, and Nemeth and you see Bowey is the 6th/7th d-man. Those guys do not get $2M/yr and neither should he.
Right now the Wings have the 2nd most cap space available (approx 35.240M with 14 players under contract though Z's contract will go on LTIR unless traded). The Edmonton Journal just published an article yesterday on how bad of a year it is to be an NHL free agent--for example Edmonton has 7M left for 5 players including possibly re-signing Mike Smith and Mike Green. And Edmonton isn't even the worst squeezed team--that honor goes to Toronto which has 4.59M to sign 7 players including Travis Dermott, Tyson Barrie, Codi Ceci, and Jeremy Bracco who is no longer waiver exempt (or you could say Phoenix who has 1.5M and needs 7 players including Taylor Hall--but does have LTIR credits). Not many teams have any money to spend as they will struggle to qualify their RFA's because of the stagnant cap. Players may not be thrilled to come to a rebuilding town--but unless they are willing to take a significantly reduced salary, sit out, or go to the KHL to collect a paycheck they will sign with any team that has cap room.
You're thinking the wrong way. The other teams will want Detroit to take on a player's bad contract like the 'Canes did to take on Patrick Marleau's contract from the Leafs last year (gave up a 6th got Marleau, conditional 1st, and 7th). Don't be surprised when players say for illustration like Niklas Hjalmarsson suddenly become Wings or if Z's corpse of a contract is moved.
I think--no hope--that Abdelkader will be buried in the minors. Not for the cap savings, but for a roster spot for one of the young forward prospects. Detroit has several players that are younger and deserve a prolonged look to see if they are part of the future.