It’s evident that the best days are in the rearview mirror for Detroit Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader but his ineffective performance last season warrants a demotion.
Could waivers be an option for Justin Abdelkader? The issue here is Abdelkader is basically impossible to trade with his lucrative contract and a long-term deal. The Detroit Red Wings tried to play Abdelkader on the top line various times throughout the season as injuries occurred. He struggled to turn back the clock to his days playing alongside Pavel Datsyuk.
In fact, Abdelkader should be paying Pavel a royalty these days for assisting him in landing this massive contract. Justin has four years remaining on his seven-year 29.75 million dollar contract. The deal does have a Ken Holland special attached to it, a no-trade clause.
Abdelkader, to no-ones surprise, enjoyed the best years of his career playing on a line with Datsyuk; he played the role, Tyler Bertuzzi, currently fulfills on the Detroit Red Wings top line. He used to play with that workhorse mentality, but unlike these days he produced and often. In a two year span leading up to his contract extension, he was averaging 18:00 minutes TOI a night and recorded back to back seasons with 40 plus points.
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During the 2014/15 season, he recorded 23 goals totaling 44 points while playing as a plus 3. The following season, the final year of his deal before signing the seven-year extension he recorded 19 goals and 42 points. Since then he’s combined for a total of 26 goals over the last three seasons, and the team has him under contract for basically a lifetime deal.
Abdelkader is unquestionably not living up to his contract, and he could be a valuable veteran in the room, he does wear an “A” on his sweater, but that still doesn’t justify the seven-year extension he signed. It’s clear Ken Holland expected to sign a regular 20 goal scorer, but he was not taking who he was playing with into consideration. Now at 32-years old Abdelkader is tending South with little to no upside.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike Abdelkader as a person, but it’s these deals that are weighing down the franchise. He’s not the only Detroit Red Wings player with a “bad” deal either, and when you start to explore all the contracts, the finger needs to point directly towards Ken Holland.
Every team needs Abdelkader type players on the fourth line, where he played the majority of the season, but not at 4.25 million per season for a player who scores 6 goals on the season and goes through extended scoreless slumps that tally up to more than 40 games without a goal. Fourth line players need to be similar to Glendening mixed in with cheap young grinding players like Ehn.
If the Detroit Red Wings are serious about rebuilding the team needs to send a message and place Abdelkader on waivers if he starts next season the same way he played this past year. Ken Holland will be reluctant to do so as Justin has been a Red Wing his entire career and he’s a veteran player.
The proof is in the season statistics, in 71 games this season Abdelkader achieved 6 goals, 13 assists for 19 points and was a minus -14. His CF% was well below average at 46%, yet he still managed to average 15:24 TOI per night. For the record Thomas Vanek who many Wings fans are sick of scored 16 goals in 64 games and only played 14:07 TOI a night. Rasmussen scored 8 goals and only played 12:00 a night, just saying and Abdelkader makes more money than both of them combined.