Why would either of the other teams do this. Detroit just paid to dump Walman, a better D who is paid less for shorter term. Why do they want to pay Krug more?
I doubt that trading Walman was done to clear up space for Krug, but they are extremely different players. Other than both being LD, they fill different roles. Walman played shut down minutes, big PK minutes and limited PP minutes. Krug's strengths are offensive deployment and PP minutes.
Ghost was their PP QB last year, but he is a 31 year old UFA who is likely looking for his last big pay day coming off a 56 point season. I wouldn't be shocked if Detroit would rather have Krug at $4.9M x 3 (that's about 25% retention) to whatever Ghost is looking for.
Getting Krug wouldn't be about comparing his cap to Walman's, it would be about comparing his cap to their other offensive PP QB options. Detroit also has some short term contracts that they might want to shed. Husso hasn't worked out there and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they want to swap him out for another goalie. Lyon was good for them, so if they want to change up the tandem at all, Husso would be the odd man out. Fabbri probably isn't worth $4M. Both deals just have 1 year left and part of a Krug trade could be that we take one of those deals on or agree to retain 50% as a 3rd party in a separate trade.
I think that the patience for the Yzerplan is finished. It's been 8 straight years without playoffs. They were in the hunt last year and a bunch of fans were annoyed that they didn't buy anything to help push that team through the stretch run. Yes, they have $32M in cap space, but they have a ton of needs. That space is going to start disappearing quickly. Seider and Raymond both need large raises and I'd argue that this is the time to get an 8 year deal done with both. Kane, Perron, Spring, and Ghost all need to be extended/replaced. The goaltending needs to improve. The blueline needs to improve.
I think Detroit has a real need to shed more money for 2024/25, but they are in a good cap position for 2025/26 and 2026/27. I think there is a real argument that Krug at $5M x 3 makes sense for them if it means not giving a larger contract to Ghost AND getting out from the $4M+ owed to Fabbri or Husso this year. They don't have anyone due a raise next summer. Krug would naturally come off the books before any of Sandin-Pellikka, Kasper, or Danielson come off their ELCs. If they can make the cap work for 2024/25 while improving the roster, they are in great shape to continue making it work for the last 2 years of Krug's deal as cheap young talent becomes ready to start taking over bigger roles.
I definitely see a path for Krug to make sense for Detroit. Lots of paths they could take where he wouldn't make sense for them, but it isn't completely crazy.
