The 28-year-old defender has been quietly good for the Detroit Red Wings this season. He isn’t someone that exactly grabs your attention with his style of play, but he does all of the little things right.
Nick Jensen is in the final year of his very team friendly contract. He makes 813k according to capfriendly.com. Another alarming stat, when you include all of the LTIR contracts (long-term injured reserve) the Detroit Red Wings owe just more than 87 million in player salary. To compare, the L.A Kings rank second, owing 81.7 million. Although a lot of that is considered “dead money” it is still pretty interesting.
Nick Jensen is logging 20 minutes of total per night. That is significantly more than I would have ever guessed. I admit I wanted Jensen and Ericsson both scratched more often than not allowing younger players more opportunities.
During the offseason, Jensen hired a shooting coach. Someone to help him with his shot path. He was unable to record a single goal last season and claims he saw the writing on the wall with these younger players set to make a push for a roster spot.
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It seems to of helped because he has notched a pair of goals and has 10 points through the first 37 games. Jensen is an above average skater, yet rarely puts himself in a position to get caught. He is a good skating penalty killing, shot blocking, stay at home defenseman.
Nick has a three-game point streak going; he has three assists over the final three games leading up to the holiday break. During this stretch, he is a plus 4. He also leads the Wings with 52 blocked shots to this point in the season.
I’ve got to wonder if the Wings really want to move him now. He would be one of the few candidates the Wings will entertain resigning although he is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the season.
Jensen would probably be around 1.5 million per season when you think about it that isn’t that much of a cap hit for a guy who has the ability to log 20 a game. He is a right-handed shot, which may drive his price up to 2/2.5 million but that would be the high water mark. When I was a kid it felt like 80% of the kids were right-handed. I am not sure what the heck has happened, but the NHL is in need of RHD.
I see a lot of similarities to Danny DeKesyer who makes 5 million per season. DeKeyser scored 12 points in 65 games last season. This season he’s played in 20 games although he is a plus 4 he’s notched 1 goal and 6 assists. Danny plays just over 21 minutes a night and had 31 blocked shots thru his first 20 games this season.
Either Danny DeKeyser is considered “overpaid” or Nick Jensen is a “bargain.” Take your pick. If the Detroit Red Wings get a decent offer for Jensen I would trade him for picks, if they don’t get what they think is an offer that matches his worth, keep him. I have no problem with keeping him around with all the youngsters that are in our system and will be coming up shortly.