On the Detroit Red Wings …
Craig Custance of The Athletic Detroit: Custance wonders if the Red Wings would be interested in free agent Mikhail Grigorenko who wasn’t qualified by the Colorado Avalanche.
Source saying that the Red Wings have been in contact with Grigorenko’s camp but it’s hard to say how serious they are.
Free agent defensemen have been a bigger priority for the Red Wings.
Ansar Khan: The Red Wings had been hoping that they would have been able to sign Brendan Smith to a three year, $3.5 million per season deal this offseason. Looking like he’ll get over $4 million from the Rangers.
Ansar Khan of MLive: The Red Wings biggest need is a top-pairing, puck-moving defenseman and they likely aren’t going to find it through free agency. There isn’t much of a market and the Red Wings have little salary cap space.
The Red Wings already have seven defensemen under contract: Danny DeKeyser, Mike Green, Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson, Nick Jensen, Xavier Ouellet and Ryan Sproul.
Sproul will miss the start of the season after having ACL surgery. Knonwall has been playing on a bad knee.
Trevor Daley is the Red Wings top free agent choice, but other options include Ron Hainsey, Dan Girardi, and Brian Campbell.
The Wings hope to sign one or two players on a one-year deal. They could go two years for Daley. The Wings plan is sign to short deals and flip at the trade deadline.
Other free agent options for the Wings include Karl Alzner, Michael Stone, Michael Del Zotto, Cody Franson, Dmitry Kulikov, Johnny Oduya and Kevin Shattenkirk.
They are currently sit just under $68 million but need to sign RFAs Tomas Tatar, Andreas Athanasiou and Xavier Ouellet.
The Philadelphia Flyers and Winnipeg Jets could be looking for a goaltender and if the Red Wings could move Petr Mrazek, it could clear $4 million.
Up front, Thomas Vanek is a free agent option and he was a good fit for them last year before they traded him to the Panthers.