The Detroit Red Wings signed defender Olli Määttä to a one-year, $2.25 million contract going into last season. He settled right in with the Red Wings and did a great job finding his way as a valuable part of the team’s defensive core.
It did not take long for the Detroit Red Wings to realize that they had something in Määttä and that he was settling into his new home quite well. They ended up giving him a contract extension in the middle of the season.
His level of play backed it up, and Red Wings General Manager (GM) Steve Yzerman decided to reward the Finnish defender. On his new contract that kicks in with the 2023-24 season, Määttä will bring home $3 million over each of the next two seasons.
The two-year contract extension keeps him in Detroit through the 2024-25 season barring any trades, and the left-handed shooting defender will continue being a reliable part of the teams’ bottom two pairings.
Detroit Red Wings extending Olli Määttä will pay off quite well.
Määttä played in 78 games for the Red Wings this season, where he would average a shade under 19 minutes of ice time each night. He scored six goals and added 17 assists for a total of 23 points during the 2022-23 season.
He was third on the team in blocks with 128, trailing only Ben Chiarot and Moritz Seider, who came in above him. Määttä managed 3.0 defensive point shares, which was the fourth-highest on the Red Wings roster this season.
Määttä’s extension takes him until his age 30 season, and there’s plenty of reason to believe that he will be of significant benefit to the team’s defense core as things stand. The Finnish defender has found his way in Detroit.
He’s always been a serviceable defender in the NHL over his ten seasons in the league. Still, this $3 million AAV extension will help the Red Wings keep some depth in their defense pairings and allow them to spend money elsewhere and still squeeze value from Määttä.
The Red Wings may be in the market for a defender this summer to help round things out and add to the team’s defense pairings, but knowing Määttä will be around will only help them continue to stack some depth up.
He may not be as big of a piece as Moritz Seider or have as hefty of an AAV as Ben Chiarot, but there’s a lot to like with Määttä’s extension and plenty of reason to believe he will continue to be a considerable part of the Red Wings defensive core.