Detroit Red Wings: Ken Holland talks trade deadline and Filip Zadina
By Bob Heyrman
Holland will work the phones but also wants to resign some of his own players (surprise, surprise)
Quotes all come from Nicholas J. Cotsonika ( @cotsonika ) of NHL.com; Ken Holland talks about possibly trading some of his veteran players;
"“It’s a matter of working the phones and seeing what people think of our players,” Holland said. “Do they want our players? If I can get a player signed and nobody’s prepared to pay a big price, then I’m obviously going to re-sign those players. But certainly if somebody’s prepared to pay, I don’t want to say a big price, but a price that we feel we can’t pass up, then we’ll look at going in that direction.” Holland will explore trades for players under contract beyond this season too, but Detroit does not have issues under the NHL salary cap. “Even if we sign some of our players back, we still have cap space,” Holland said. “So it’s not like I need to move players of any variety to get cap space. We don’t need space. I’ve got cap space, and we can get in the [free agent] marketplace in the summertime.”"
The back end of this comment is quite alarming. So Ken Holland is already thinking about resigning some of these players? If that doesn’t describe Ken Holland and his “being loyal to a fault” nothing ever will.
I would be open to a reunion with Gustav Nyquist and Jimmy Howard. The pair has both played some of the best hockey of their careers this season. Nyquist is thriving in more of a Zetterberg-esk setup role as long as the term isn’t outrageous and he doesn’t command a large cap number. With Dylan Larkin signing a long-term deal worth 6.1 million per season it actually helps the Wings management keep the others at a reasonable cap number.
Howard is having a tremendous season, an all-star season as a matter of fact. He should draw a lot of interest over the next week or two. He owns the second-best save percentage in the league during five on five play. That is something to be proud of while playing for one of the bottom teams in the league.
The Detroit Red Wings don’t have a netminder currently ready to step in and start or back up Jonathan Bernier for the long haul. They would be able to survive the remainder of the season with either Patrik Rybar or Harri Sateri backing up but will need to address a second netminder in the summer.
That being said, Jimmy Howard even at 35-years-old on a short term deal, preferably a two-year contract could be a feasible resigning candidate for the Detroit Red Wings. Howard in all likelihood will seek a three-year-deal with an average annual salary worth about 4 million per season.