An early look at who the Detroit Red Wings should target in Free Agency

I wanted to add Sergei Bobrovsky, but after I thought about it, he’s 31-years-old and will surely be seeking a 7-year-deal worth 10 or so million per season.  That’s a lot of money for a netminder whose production will be on the way down by the time the Detroit Red Wings have completed their rebuild.

When you think of other goaltenders around the league, Freddie Anderson in Toronto makes 5 million per season.  John Gibson makes 6.4 per season.  Tuukka Rask makes 7 million per season. Braden Holtby makes 6.1 per season. Yet, Bobrovsky claims he wants Carey Price money, and I don’t think the Detroit Red Wings will be prepared to spend 10.5 million on a 31-year-old goaltender.

That being said, I feel Erik Karlsson will be chasing the money. I am taking Drew Doughty into consideration who makes 11 million per season.  I would expect Karlsson to look to match that deal.  He will need a telemarketing team in place to field the phone calls on July 1st, but the Detroit Red Wings should at least consider making the call.

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You never know unless you try, maybe if Kenny Holland promises one of his favorite no-trade clauses along with free Little Caesars pizza for life he may gather the attention of Karlsson.  But seriously the Wings will have some cap space if they wanted to pay a max player, they are in dire need of a difference maker on the back-end.

The Wings have this brand new arena, state of the art facilities and a city trending in the right direction.  It’s a fan base that will go to bat for you, embrace you and we flat out love our Detroit Red Wings.  The team friendly deal that Dylan Larkin signed last summer allows the Wings flexibility to sign a max player.

A lot of the future will depend on where the Wings select after the draft lottery is completed.  If the Wings land Hughes they will need to save money to sign him along with Athanasiou, Mantha, and Bertuzzi.  Yes, Hughes would be cheap for the first three seasons, and then into his RFA period, but they will have to monitor their spending knowing what the cost could be.

The team still has the money to sign a max deal but then would have to fill out the rest of the roster with cheaper, younger players until the Abdekaders’ of the world are off the books.  I don’t have to tell you how good Karlsson is; he is a Norris Trophy winner.

In 52 games this season with the Sharks he’s accomplished 3 goals, 42 assists totaling 45 points.  He’s a plus 3 as he averages 24:32 TOI a night.  His CF% is fantastic sitting at 59.3%, which is about as good as it gets, he’s an elite talent.

This summer will be fun, some of these players mentioned unfortunately won’t even look in Detroit’s direction but if the Wings happened to land just one of these guys it would drastically be an upgrade the current group the Wings are rolling out onto the ice on a nightly basis.