Red Wings Free-Agency Splash: The Cause and Effect

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The Detroit Red Wings have not gone out and spent money like they did this off-season in quite some time. Matter of fact, it’s probably been about six years since they really made a push in the free agency market. That was up until July 14th, 2022.

After Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond showed that they were ready this past season, it probably prompted Steve Yzerman to take a step back and re-evaluate the organization and where they are at. Most of the time that leads to many trades, but this time, Yzerman decided they were ready to take the next step in their rebuild.

On the first day of free agency the Detroit Red Wings signed a plethora of names that are hopefully going to help them take the next step.

With the additions of forwards David Perron, Andrew Copp, and Dominik Kubalik, they added a elite goal scorer, a versatile two-way player, and a rising player with a lot of potential. On the defensive side they added two left-handed defenseman in Olli Maatta and Ben Chiarot. And then they traded for former St. Louis Blues goalie, Ville Husso.

Going into the off-season, I wanted them to make a splash. And that’s exactly what they did. But since that point, I’ve had time to re-evaluate my thoughts and the matter and it got me thinking- What does this mean in terms of the Red Wings future? Which got me thinking even further: What do these signings mean this season?

Here are some post free agency thoughts

Steve Yzerman. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Red Wings Free-Agency Splash: The Cause and Effect

The Detroit Red Wings are in a much better spot now that they went out and made moves. That much is undeniable. But, the problem with all the moves they made is the fact that they might have overdone it. Having locked up multiple players for the next couple years, the opportunities now for the young guys to make an impact on the NHL roster is next-to-none.

Taking a look at the Red Wings current roster, they currently have this as their opening night lineup(upon speculation);

Forwards

T. Bertuzzi – D. Larkin – D. Perron

J. Vrana – A. Copp – L. Raymond

F. Zadina – P. Suter – D. Kubalik

J. Veleno – M. Rasmussen – O. Sundqvist

Defense

B. Chiarot – M. Seider

O. Maatta – F. Hronek

J. Walman – G. Lindstrom

Goalies

V. Husso

A. Nedeljkovic

Now, looking at that roster, I feel very confident in their abilities, but what happens to Simon Edvinsson? Jonathan Berggren? William Wallinder? Elmer Soderblom? There is no spot for them. They have these players locked up for the time being and now they have no room to give their young guys an opportunity.

Now, Simon Edvinsson at best would start the season on the third line with Gustav Lindstrom. However, it’s very possible that they could move him up the ranks as the season goes. Additionally, if Edvinsson does move up the ranks, that’d mean that they’d be paying Ben Chiarot almost $5,000,000 to play second-line minutes. Which, in other words, would be an overpay. And that’s just the defense.

When it comes to the offense, you have guys like Joe Veleno, Michael Rasmussen, Elmer Soderblom, Jonathan Berggren and many more names that need opportunities. But now that they went out and signed a bunch of guys, their minutes are going to be decreased and we won’t really be able to see them take a jump for the next couple seasons. Which would pretty much mean they’d officially become busts.

Now, when I say all of this, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I’m not saying that the signings they made were terrible. In fact, I think they were very good moves by Yzerman. But, I’m not thrilled about the amount of signings they made.

Joe Veleno showed potential last season and I was fully expecting him to open the season as the center three and work his way up to the center two position. But now, it’s very unlikely he’ll surpass 10-12 minutes per game. And the same goes for Michael Rasmussen.

Finding a balance this season was important for the Red Wings. They had to find a balance between youth and veterans. Now, it’s all proven players and little-to-no youth.

It’ll be interesting to see how this affects the future of the Red Wings.

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