As the NHL’s free agency period opened Friday afternoon, the Detroit Red Wings organization signed some old and new faces to the team.
The Wings started the day off by signing minor-league F Matt Lorito to a two-way two-year deal. A two-way deal basically means his salary will depend on which league he plays in next season. If he plays in the NHL this fall, he will earn $575,000. If he plays for the Grand Rapids Griffins, he will earn $250,000. In the 2017-18 season, he would make $650,000 in the NHL or $275,000 in the AHL.
Lorito played for four years at Brown University, his third year as assistant captain and his final year as captain. In his career at Brown University, he played a total of 118 games, scored 47 goals and assisted 59. He was an All-Ivy League in his final three seasons. At the end of his final year at Brown, Lorito signed an amateur tryout agreement with the New Jersey Devils. He played for their affiliate, Albany Devils. There he played a total of 82 games, scored 21 and assisted 45.
With that goal, he looks like a younger Helm with that kind of speed.
Detroit Red Wings
With Pavel Datsyuk leaving for Russia, the Wings needed to fill a void, which came in the form of former New York Islanders center Frans Nielsen. The Wings signed him to a six-year deal at $31.5 million with an annual salary cap hit of $5.25 million. The first two years of his contract are a strict no-movement clause then goes to a limited no-trade clause.
Last season with the Islanders, he played 81 games, scoring 20 and assisting 32 for a total of 52 points. In the playoffs, he played 11 games, scored three goals and assisted three. In the last five season, Nielsen has played most of each season, only missing a hand full of games. He has scored around 20 goals each season and assisted around 30 too. He also brings one of the highest shootout percentages to the table, having scored 42 of 82 career attempts (51.2 percent).
Detroit also signed Thomas Vanek to a one-year deal for $2.6 million. He most recently played for the Minnesota Wild, but have also played with Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres. In his career, he has played 817 games, scored 316 goals and assisted 333. He is possibly the diamond in the rough of free agency for the Wings. This needs to be a turnaround year for the Wings and hopefully Vanek can bring an element of urgency in the opponent’s zone to light a fire under this team’s butt to score some goals.
The Wings were finally able to come to an agreement with Darren Helm. He received a five-year deal worth $3.85 million annually. The Wings weren’t ready to let go of Helm’s speed just yet. He balances out a player like Henrik Zetterberg where speed isn’t their strong suit. He will be crucial to the power play if he can find a way to hit the back of the net or break down the defense.
For another two years, the Wings signed Alexey Marchenko to $1.45 million annually. He played 66 games this past season and had two goals and 11 assists. For being a younger defenseman, he keeps calm with the puck amidst all the chaos. Rarely does he make a mistake. This year, I would expect the Wings to put him in a larger role.
The remaining players under free agency include Kyle Quincey, Petr Mrazek, Danny DeKeyser and Teemu Pulkkinen.