The Detroit Red Wings reached the playoffs last year — improbably as it were — for the 25th straight season. But for the third consecutive post-season, it ended with a whimper: a first-round exit.
Going into the final season at Joe Louis Arena, the team will regress. It’s the price that will be paid for scraping into the playoffs year after year, while not making substantive upgrades in free agency and at the same time, letting young talent walk for nothing.
Teemu Pulkkinen, 24 years old and two years removed from a 61 point in 46 game season in Grand Rapids, was exposed to waivers and was picked up by Minnesota. Two days earlier, Martin Frk, who had been having a great preseason, was picked up by Carolina. Two years ago, Holland exposed Andrej Nestrasil to waivers in an attempt to send him down to Grand Rapids, only to have Carolina pick him up; he’s now the first line right wing in Raleigh.
This is a trend. And a disturbing one.
In an era of the necessity of careful, meticulous, day-to-day salary cap management, Holland has a team with only four entry level contracts: forwards Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou, and defensemen Xavier Ouellet and Ryan Sproul — both of whom are long overdo for a chance to play. Tomas Jurco, also on an ELC, will start the season on IR. Steve Ott is making $800,000, less than the ELC, but fans will also expect low-level production from a fourth-line winger that is taking up a roster spot.
Holland has doled out contracts that border on insane in their lengths: seven years (and nearly $30 million) to Justin Abdelkader; five years (at nearly $20 million) to third-liner Darren Helm; six years (and $30 million) to Danny DeKeyser — all in the last year. The two former contracts have, full no-trade clauses for some portion of the deal. He also gave out no-trade clauses to Niklas Kronwall (forgivable), and Jonathan Ericsson (considerably less forgivable).
He’s also paying more than $9.3 million to goalies Jimmy Howard ($5.29 million) and Petr Mrazek ($4 million). Mrazek is the better goalie, but Howard has a modified no-trade clause for the next two years of his deal, of which he has three left. That’s a lot of money for a backup with a contract that can’t be moved.
So what is second-year coach Jeff Blashill going to get? One that has bloated contracts and not enough a mix of youth and veterans.
Holland’s best move of the offseason was dealing Pavel Datsyuk — his contract at least — to Arizona to free up $7.5 million in cap space. Datsyuk was moving back to Russia to finish his playing career in the KHL, and at least Holland was able to get space for to make some moves in free agency.
With that space, Holland was able to land Frans Nielsen, a solid two-way center to a 6-year, $31.5 million deal. He also added noted grinder Ott, who has already settled nicely into a fourth line role with Luke Glendening and Drew Miller, and Minnesota Wild buyout victim Thomas Vanek. Vanek underproduced his contract in Minnesota, but for one-year deal to try and rediscover his goalscoring touch, it’s worth a flyer. But, what basically works out as a swap of Pulkkinen for Vanek, most Red Wings fans would prefer the greater upside of the young Finn over the veteran.
Unfortunately, besides the fourth line, little else is settled. Not just lines; the whole direction of the franchise as it heads to Little Caesars Arena in 2017.
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