Red Wings will have plenty of cap space for free agents
Ansar Khan of MLive: (mailbag) The Detroit Red Wings currently won’t have salary cap issues next season. They have 11 players under contract at only $32 million, with $2.3 for Justin Abdelkader‘s buyout.
They’ll have $47 million for 12 to 15 players. Re-signing restricted free agents Jakub Vrana, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Adam Erne will need ‘bigger’ raises. Other pending RFAs include Filip Hronek, Michael Rasmussen, Evgeny Svechnikov, Dennis Cholowski and Gustav Lindstrom. Re-signing UFA goaltender Jonathan Bernier should be a priority as they don’t really have anyone in the system ready.
GM Steve Yzerman may have interesting in re-sign UFAs Bobby Ryan and/or Sam Gagner.
St. Louis Blues UFA forward Mike Hoffman may fit into the Red Wings top-six, but would he want to sign with a rebuilding team? Yzerman may not be interested in offering term to UFAs.
The Red Wings aren’t going to buy out Danny DeKeyser or Richard Panik this offseason. Both could be exposed for the expansion draft. Buying out out Brock Nielsen is a possibility but wouldn’t be much of a savings. He has a year left on his contract at a $5.25 million cap hit but would carry a $4.25 million cap hit next year and $500,000 the following year.
Third round playoff issues for Canadian teams
TSN: The NHL continues to talk with the Canadian government about the possibility of playing home games in Canada for the third round according to Frank Seravalli. For scheduling reasons, the NHL will need to have a final decision around June 1st to 5th.
“Their negotiations and conversations are ongoing with the Canadian federal government at this point. And with the recent uptick in vaccinations across Canada there, the NHL is hopeful that there is enough runway between now and then to pull this off and have the Canadian team playing Round 3 in their home building. But up until now, they are just finally beginning to have those conversations on the other potential venues to host the Canadian team in the U.S. if need be on a contingent basis.”
