As the Stanley Cup Playoffs trudge on with the Detroit Red Wings sidelined for a 10th-straight season, fans are left to spend their extended offseason making their ideal roster that is sure to break the playoff drought in 2026-27.
While writers such as myself are hoping for some big trades, particularly for an impact center, there are additional ways to add marginal talent to the roster.
Detroit enters the offseason with a shade under $33 million in cap space and only restricted free agent Simon Edvinsson likely to command a significant salary among their in house free agents. With the unrestricted free agent market looking thin at best, Detroit’s options to improve the roster are limited.
With so much cap space at their disposal, Detroit can be a landing spot for talent that teams who are pushing against the $104 million salary limit for 2026-27. The old adage of one man’s trash is another’s treasure can prove itself true in the Red Wings’ case with several players whose salary is a burden to their current team.
Detroit needs a center. The Dallas Stars need to sign a bevy of players. Tyler Seguin might be a solution for both teams.
Tyler Seguin’s contract is pinching Dallas
After years of leveraging the future to win now, the Dallas Stars are in the opposite position as the Red Wings with the salary cap. Dallas has less than $11 million in cap space entering the offseason. They have two restricted free agents in Jason Robertson (45 goals, 51 assists, 96 points) and Mavrik Bourque (20 goals, 21 assists, 41 points) that need extensions.
Robertson (26 years old) has put up between 79 and 106 points for five straight seasons while Bourque (24 years old) enjoyed a breakout season of his own in a middle-six role. A long-term extension for Robertson could very well eat up the entirety of Dallas’ cap space while Bourque should command between $5-6 million. Even filling out the rest of the roster with league-minimum contracts puts Dallas conservatively $6-7 million over the cap ceiling.
This is where Tyler Seguin comes in. The 34-year-old forward is entering the final year of his 8-year contract that carries a $9.85 million cap hit. Seguin played just 27 games before tearing his ACL last season, though he put up a respectable 17 point (sixth on the team at the time) in that span. His cap hit makes him an easy casualty and an asset that is both useful in the right situation and one that Dallas may be desperate to move.
Tyler Seguin could add elusive secondary scoring
Seguin was a highly touted player who cut his teeth near Detroit with the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers. The second pick of the 2010 NHL Draft jumped straight to the NHL and won a Stanley Cup with Boston as a 19-year old, scored 29 goals in 2011-12 to make an all-star game. He was eventually dealt to Dallas after the 2012-13 campaign and posted 72 or more points for the Stars in six-straight seasons, leading to his current eight-year contract.
The past two years have seen Seguin on IR more than the lineup, as he has logged 20 and 27 games, respectively in those seasons. Still, he has been productive when healthy, posting 38 points in 47 games in that span.
If you prorate his 17 points in 27 games last year to a full 82-game season (or 84 as the new NHL schedule kicks in), Tyler Seguin would have recorded 51 points, which is right in line with his three-year average from 2021-24. That total would have ranked sixth on the Red Wings and second among the team’s centers, eight points ahead of second-line center Andrew Copp’s 43.
The cost for Seguin
While Tyler Seguin holds a full no-trade clause, he'd be a top-six center with Detroit, which might encourage him to sign on to a trade. Best of all, the actual acquisition cost of getting him should be fairly low. It may be a stretch to say Dallas would trade draft capital to get him off their books (especially considering the Stars have few picks to trade), but there's a chance he goes for as low as a fifth-round pick in the 2026 draft, assuming Detroit takes on the full contract.
Barring a ridiculous overpay for Edvinsson, Seguin would immediately be Detroit’s highest-paid player for the final year of his contract. While the Red Wings have attempted to use Dylan Larkin’s salary of $8.7 million as the team’s internal max contract, it would behoove them to make an exception on Seguin by taking his full contract for extra help.
That said, a team that acquires a partial contract must hold onto the player for a full calendar year. Should Detroit acquire Seguin, but the 2026-27 season goes nowhere, having the option to deal Seguin to a contender while retaining some salary is an option they should value having.
How Seguin could fit in Detroit
Assuming Patrick Kane returns to the Red Wings, Detroit could conceivably have a second line of Seguin, Kane and Alex DeBrincat to provide some extra scoring power and another right-shot center. Surrounding Seguin with those two on his wing will give him options to maximize the offense he can still provide.
If Marco Kasper bounces back or Nate Danielson takes a step forward, it would also give the Red Wings late game options to limit Seguin’s minutes down the stretch. Getting Seguin while keeping Kasper and Danielson in the fold could be the best of both worlds. A breakout by either or both can help shelter Seguin from being overloaded.
In return, Seguin provides some offensive punch as a second-line center that the team has lacked for Larkin’s entire time as a Red Wing.
Best of all, the Red Wings could absorb Seguin’s contract and still have room to add another big contract to the roster via trade. If the Red Wings were to go hunting for another defenseman like, say, Adam Fox, they’d have the ammunition and cap space to make it work, even if it took buying out JT Compher’s to squeeze him in.
Getting Seguin is risky
Beyond the nearly $10 million cap hit for someone who is essentially a 50-point forward when healthy, Seguin’s peripheral stats point to his production being more luck than skill last year. Seguin had a 44.6 CF% at 5-on-5 last year, easily the worst of his career.
When you dig deeper, the majority of his even strength minutes were spent playing with Robertson and Roope Hintz, an elite goal scoring winger and another center who is a strong two-way player to shelter him. The best combination the Wings could give him offensively with DeBrincat and Kane will not cover up for the defensive deficiencies that his injuries and aging have highlighted.
Beyond the aging curve of injuries, there is also no guarantee that Seguin bounces back from this ACL injury at his age while playing in a completely new environment in a walk year. One would like to think Seguin wants to show value to get one more decent contract before he hangs up his skates, but it is entirely possible that Detroit could be left holding the bag with a player who has nothing left in the tank after a series of injuries.
Is a trade for Tyler Seguin worth it?
I’m Steve Yzerman, Tyler Seguin woudln't be my top priority. I believe cashing in prospects and picks for an Elias Pettersson-caliber player makes more sense. I also believe that Seguin isn’t the Dallas forward that makes the most sense to pursue this summer. That said, I believe there is value in providing Seguin with a soft landing due to Detroit’s need for offense and a low-risk deal.
For something in the neighborhood of a 4th or 5th-round pick, I am happy to find out if the Red Wings can extract some value for Seguin to add a temporary second-line center solution.
The Red Wings need to be in the business of getting better players to take a step forward next year. By weaponizing their cap space to take on big ticket contracts like Tyler Seguin, they can do just that without paying a premium price in prospects.
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