2026 UFA targets

[Oddbob]

Is this realistic you think?

Solberg likes Anaheim, but if there's a trade that'll make him even happier it would be this one.

Two close buddies who wouldn't mind playing for the Wings, and they will both provide some needed physicality. You already have one of them

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What does it matter what a youngster likes? They can be traded wherever and have no say at all.

 

[Henkka]

McMann resigned...scratch another off

That's too bad. Gonna keep scoring.

When no one is gonna take Laine, we are proably the final team offering for him, and he will kindly accept.

 

[Henkka]

If nothing else, Lundell offers a decent trade chip if the season goes off the rails and a tear down becomes inevitable. I actually think if he played top line minutes he’d be a 50 point guy while playing great defense.

For Florida, think it's more reasonable trade Lundell for Hellebuyck.

Luostarinen is also a natural center, has just been put on wing for years thanks to Florida's luxury of centers. But at last season, when they missed both Barkov and Lundell at same time, he got his share back in the middle and was good.

Lundell is a great piece, luxury as 3rd line center, but starting goalie is maybe a bit more important...

It improves the team heck of a more than swapping Lundell to Larkin. It's like Hasek-trade for us at summer 2001.

If Luostarinen moves at Center, then there's the UFA market to plug a winger hole quite easily. Everyone likes to go to Florida. Who is the next "robitaille" from the "hasek-summer".

 

[Henkka]

Even when we had Larkin last summer he stopped doing that, so hopefully he has learned. Appleton only got two years, Hamonic thank jeebus was a one year, and JVR a one year.

Then the summer prior Tarasenko a two year deal, Motte on a 1 year deal, and Gustafsson a two year deal.

Yeah, pretty short-term lately. But blind people won't see it.

Think the only contract which went wrong with term has been Compher. 1-2 years too long.

Others are just fine.

 

[jkutswings]

Yeah, pretty short-term lately. But blind people won't see it.

Think the only contract which went wrong with term has been Compher. 1-2 years too long.

Others are just fine.

I didn't know that term was the aspect under criticism. The caliber of player has been mediocre, regardless of how many years they are here.

 

[Snuggs]

I didn't know that term was the aspect under criticism. The caliber of player has been mediocre, regardless of how many years they are here.

Lol yeah way to stear that convo way off subject. Lol.

Yzerplan delusion though, imo. It's becoming an exercise on how far this pizza dough can get stretched out.

Talent on the team is what people care about I've never cared about the players salary outside of not offering that same cash to other players. Copp/Comphers money actually hasn't stopped Red Wings from doing anything... I don't care about ownerships money and how much they save on short term deals never committing to anyone with big money because they won't pay them long-term more than other teams when they have to compete in an open market setting. It's a fatal flaw, that cost them, not a feather in their caps of success.

 

[The Zermanator]

I didn't know that term was the aspect under criticism. The caliber of player has been mediocre, regardless of how many years they are here.

There wasn’t much better to choose from.

The only people who have a leg to stand on with an argument like that are the ones that advocated tanking longer, which is almost no one. And certainly not the ones who have been a broken record of “it’s unacceptable that this has taken ‘x’ many years” for 3-4 years now.

The front office wanted to start gaining some altitude on this thing, whether due to pressure from fans, ownership (if @Petes2424 is to be believed), internal pressure, or some combination of all three. And the kids were by and large still literally kids. So they went out and got what was available to them, which did increase the altitude btw. Now those vets are being replaced by those aforementioned kids, who are no longer literally kids.

 

[jkutswings]

There wasn’t much better to choose from.

The only people who have a leg to stand on with an argument like that are the ones that advocated tanking longer, which is almost no one. And certainly not the ones who have been a broken record of “it’s unacceptable that this has taken ‘x’ many years” for 3-4 years now.

The front office wanted to start gaining some altitude on this thing, whether due to pressure from fans, ownership (if @Petes2424 is to be believed), internal pressure, or some combination of all three. And the kids were by and large still literally kids. So they went out and got what was available to them, which did increase the altitude btw. Now those vets are being replaced by those aforementioned kids, who are no longer literally kids.

I never said to sign zero free agents and violate the cap floor. But nobody has ever provided a logical explanation for the redundancies:
* Why sign both Copp and Compher?
* Why sign Gustaffson and Holl and Hamonic?
* Why sign both Appleton and JVR?

By all means, bring in a guy here and there. But Yzerman keeps doubling and tripling up on moves that aren't impactful.

And you're half right in saying that they could have just been a terrible team for another 2-3 years. The other option would have been to package one or more of the kids to trade for a better caliber of player. Yes, that runs the risk of dealing a young player who then becomes a very good player elsewhere. But 1) if the goal was to move things forward, I'd rather have a good player now than a potential good player in a few years, and 2) I'm still waiting to see any of those pending kids prove that they'll be very good NHL players.

 

[DTR]

 

[SirloinUB]

I never said to sign zero free agents and violate the cap floor. But nobody has ever provided a logical explanation for the redundancies:
* Why sign both Copp and Compher?
* Why sign Gustaffson and Holl and Hamonic?
* Why sign both Appleton and JVR?

By all means, bring in a guy here and there. But Yzerman keeps doubling and tripling up on moves that aren't impactful.

And you're half right in saying that they could have just been a terrible team for another 2-3 years. The other option would have been to package one or more of the kids to trade for a better caliber of player. Yes, that runs the risk of dealing a young player who then becomes a very good player elsewhere. But 1) if the goal was to move things forward, I'd rather have a good player now than a potential good player in a few years, and 2) I'm still waiting to see any of those pending kids prove that they'll be very good NHL players.

People talk a lot about the pro-scouting, and I would never go out on a limb for that group but I truly don't think we ever had our pick of the litter over the last handful of off-seasons.

Yzerman simply signed the best players that were willing to come to Detroit.

 

[jkutswings]

Yzerman simply signed the best players that were willing to come to Detroit.

We're not arguing the same thing. I'm not claiming that Detroit passed on a better caliber of free agent. I'm saying that they signed twice as many free agents as they should have over the last few years.

If all you can get are bottom half of the lineup players, then sign 1 per year, not 2-3. Then either play more of the kids, play some scrubs from GR, or deal some of the kids in a trade for a real player. Commit to a real direction instead of riding the fence.

 

[SirloinUB]

We're not arguing the same thing. I'm not claiming that Detroit passed on a better caliber of free agent. I'm saying that they signed twice as many free agents as they should have over the last few years.

If all you can get are bottom half of the lineup players, then sign 1 per year, not 2-3. Then either play more of the kids, play some scrubs from GR, or deal some of the kids in a trade for a real player. Commit to a real direction instead of riding the fence.

I fully support what you are saying here but when teams can't obtain high end talent they try to build around depth. I think that's what we saw play out over the last few years. Detroit signed the best depth the could and kept trying to further bolster that depth.

Unfortunately the end result was just redundancies clogging up the roster.

 

[ShanahanMan]

There’s absolutely no point to even sign a UFA given we’re now in a forced rebuild.

 

[jkutswings]

I fully support what you are saying here but when teams can't obtain high end talent they try to build around depth.

But they shouldn't. That's the problem with the rebuild in a nutshell. It all falls apart without enough of a framework of really good players. I would take one great player over a dozen depth guys, because it's easy enough to replace those depth guys. That's why I was willing to offer the equivalent of 4-5 first round picks for Robert Thomas. Lots of people ridiculed that approach at the time, but now several of them think Detroit should get the equivalent of 3-4 first rounders for Larkin.

Depth is meaningless unless there's sufficient real talent in front of that depth.

 

[SirloinUB]

But they shouldn't. That's the problem with the rebuild in a nutshell. It all falls apart without enough of a framework of really good players. I would take one great player over a dozen depth guys, because it's easy enough to replace those depth guys. That's why I was willing to offer the equivalent of 4-5 first round picks for Robert Thomas. Lots of people ridiculed that approach at the time, but now several of them think Detroit should get the equivalent of 3-4 first rounders for Larkin.

Depth is meaningless unless there's sufficient real talent in front of that depth.

Again, I completely agree.

The problem is, the top talents (UFAs or players with NTCs) are the ones that get to pick their team and they're not picking detroit no matter what we throw their way.

The team's check down from that was overpaying for and over accumulating depth. I didn't care for that plan.

 

[Snuggs]

We're not arguing the same thing. I'm not claiming that Detroit passed on a better caliber of free agent. I'm saying that they signed twice as many free agents as they should have over the last few years.

If all you can get are bottom half of the lineup players, then sign 1 per year, not 2-3. Then either play more of the kids, play some scrubs from GR, or deal some of the kids in a trade for a real player. Commit to a real direction instead of riding the fence.

I'm saying they passed over guys for lesser guys... Gostisbehere for Gustafsson is an easy one.

Justin Holl is the best defender that would have accepted that contract that was signed on JULY 1st. Give me a break, he was targeted by this staff.

With some guys like Appleton I suppose you can say they tried; because they waited a full day of free agency to sign him on July 2nd... so he seemed more like a plan B option. Nonetheless; he was in there plans for whatever reason.

 

[RedWingzz]

We're so screwed lol

Patrik Laine....come on down!

 

[Waldorf]

There’s absolutely no point to even sign a UFA given we’re now in a forced rebuild.

Gotta reach the cap floor. I wonder if Chris lets Yzerman weaponize cap space this time around.

 

[Run the Jewels]

People talk a lot about the pro-scouting, and I would never go out on a limb for that group but I truly don't think we ever had our pick of the litter over the last handful of off-seasons.

Yzerman simply signed the best players that were willing to come to Detroit.

I think there's a lot of truth to that. I also think Yzerman didn't want to get tied up to bad cap hits for players who weren't legit game changers. Add in the realities of being a rebuilding team and those limitations made it tough to pull the best talent on the market.

 

[Claypool]

Gotta reach the cap floor. I wonder if Chris lets Yzerman weaponize cap space this time around.

Are there any contracts from players on LTIR? I feel like most of the "unmovable" contracts (Rielly/Nurse/Pettersson) are from players with NMC. I don't see them coming to Detroit just to waste away.

The Floor is $76M. Detroit is currently at $74M. Edvidsson's contract will replace Larkin's. Might be able to get there if they bring back Parron on a one-year deal. Will have to see what they trade Gibson/Faulk/Debrincat for.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Gotta reach the cap floor. I wonder if Chris lets Yzerman weaponize cap space this time around.

There's not much weaponizing that can be done.

We missed that boat during a cap freeze. There ain't many teams that need cap so bad they're gonna give up anything of great significance for it.

 

[datsyukfan]

There's not much weaponizing that can be done.

We missed that boat during a cap freeze. There ain't many teams that need cap so bad they're gonna give up anything of great significance for it.

Exactly. Yzerman put this team in cap hell before the ray and seider contracts, then when we got out of it and teams were about to be crunched the cap skyrocketed. He’s just done a completely pathetic job

 

[Oddbob]

Exactly. Yzerman put this team in cap hell before the ray and seider contracts, then when we got out of it and teams were about to be crunched the cap skyrocketed. He’s just done a completely pathetic job

We haven't been in cap trouble for a long time, over 10 years at this point.

 

[datsyukfan]

We haven't been in cap trouble for a long time, over 10 years at this point.

He literally cap dumped multiple guys the summer of ray and seider extensions. We absolutely were in cap trouble

 

[Henkka]

Exactly. Yzerman put this team in cap hell before the ray and seider contracts, then when we got out of it and teams were about to be crunched the cap skyrocketed. He’s just done a completely pathetic job

Cap skyrocketing is Yzerman's fault?

This is getting even better.