The UFA market officially opened Saturday; here's what the Red Wings did

July 1st marks the NHL's annual free agent frenzy, and this year was no exception.  

The first day of the 2023 free agent period saw 166 new contracts signed for a total value eclipsing $646 million dollars.  The Detroit Red Wings were a significant player in those proceedings, reeling in reinforcements up front, along the blue line, and in net in a push to improve the 2023-24 roster.

Free agency is always perilous.  As a rule, team over-pay (and by a wide margin) on July 1st.  Contracts are doled out to players much too old to live up to them.  Teams convince themselves that because they have money to spend, they must spend it.  Other teams will be lured into bidding wars for players doomed never to meet the role they have been auctioned into.

Before unrestricted free agency opened at noon Saturday, the Wings took care of a bit of internal business: signing three RFAs who'd become UFAs when Detroit opted against qualifying them a day earlier.  Klim Kostin, acquired at the draft from Edmonton, was the only one to ink a multi-year deal, signing for 2 years and $4 million in total.  Gustav Lindstrom signed for a year and $950K, and Matt Luff a two-way, one-year deal worth $775K.  

At noon, Detroit dove into the UFA pool, signing goaltender James Reimer (one year, $1.5 million), defenseman Justin Holl (three years, $10.2 million), and goaltender Alex Lyon (2 years, $1.8 million).

I have full breakdowns for Reimer (a decent back-up option coming off a bad season and San Jose, with a disappointing intolerance for Pride Night) and Holl (a solid puck mover and penalty killer, who is accident prone and struggles with net-front defense) already.  

As for Lyon, he is a 30-year-old, Yale-educated journeyman, having played six years in the NHL but just 39 games.  For his career, he can claim a .903 SV% and 3.05 GAA.  Last season in Florida, Lyon saved the Panthers season—filling in with Spencer Knight in the NHLPA player assistance program and Sergei Bobrovsky injured, ineffective, or both.  In 14 starts, Lyon picked up 9 wins down the stretch, with a .912 SV% and 2.89 GAA to his name, helping the Ice Cats overcome a disastrous start to the season to scrape into the playoffs.  Lyon is a low-risk third goaltender option, overqualified for the AHL and a solid option as a back-up at the NHL level.

Detroit's next move was to bring in Daniel Sprong, last with the Seattle Kraken.  Per MoneyPuck.com, Sprong ranked 15th in the league a year ago in goals-per-sixty minutes of ice time, and he potted a career high 21 goals while playing in a sheltered role.  Sprong isn't a play-driver by any stretch of the imagination, but he is an elite finisher and in-zone creator.  He plays a bit like a soccer "number nine"/center forward, and MoneyPuck estimated his shooting talent as 25.3% above league average last season.

The Wings' next major move took the form of a five-year, $25.5 million deal to bring J.T. Compher—a University of Michigan product—to Detroit.  Compher established himself as a quality, defense-first second line center a year ago in Colorado.  His arrival (especially coupled with spending first round picks on Marco Kasper and Nate Danielson in consecutive seasons) signals an obvious organizational priority on 200-foot centermen.  In some ways, he's the anti-Sprong: He doesn't finish well, but he is useful just about everywhere else.

Between signing Sprong and Compher, Detroit also inked a pair of AHLers in Tim Gettinger (a 25-year-old left winger coming off five years in the New York Ranger organization) and Brogan Rafferty (a 28-year-old right-shot D who has spent time with the Utica Comets, San Diego Gulls, and most recently, the Coachella Valley Firebirds).  Neither profiles as an NHL player, but both have solid track records for scoring at the AHL level.  Gettinger put up 13 goals and 22 assists (both career highs) in 52 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack last season, while Rafferty put up 9 goals and 42 assists for the Firebirds.

Detroit wrapped up its initial wave of free agent business by signing two more NHLers: Christian Fischer and Shayne Gostisbehere.  Both signed for a year, the former at a $1.125 million rate and the latter for $4.125 million.

Fischer has spent the entirety of his seven-year NHL career in Arizona, having been selected by the Coyotes in the second round of the 2015 Draft.  Last season, he put up 13 goals and 14 assists in 14:51 ATOI over 80 games.  For his career, Fischer has 56 goals and 55 assists in 398 games played.

The above "isolated impact" chart from Micah McCurdy of HockeyViz.com shows Fischer as a solid offensive play-driver, stingy defender, and decent scorer with a bad penalty differential.  An important context for Fischer is that he's spent the entirety of his NHL career playing for a lousy Coyotes team.  Arizona has cracked the playoffs just once in his time there: the 2020 bubble, when the Yotes finished 5th in the Pacific but won a qualifying round series over Nashville before being pummeled by Colorado in the first official playoff round.

Gostisbehere, himself a former Coyote, arrives as a power play quarterback.  In relation to 2023 first rounder Axel Sandin Pellikka, Steve Yzerman noted that Detroit lacks a natural PP QB at the NHL level and in its prospect pool.  Between Gostisbehere and Sandin Pellikka, they've addressed both shortages.  140 of the Ghost Bear's 311 career points (~45%) have come on the power play.

He's spent nine year in the NHL, 7 with Philadelphia, one-and-a-half in Arizona, and the back half of last year in Carolina.  In 2022-23, he put up 13 goals and 28 helpers between his time in the desert and with the Canes.  At his apex, Gostisbehere scored 65 points in 78 points back with the Flyers in 2017-18, earning a 10th place finish for the Norris.

That's not the player who the Wings are getting (nor the Gostisbehere who led little Union College to the 2014 NCAA National Championship), but Detroit will be adding a player who can help contribute to the power play straight away. $4.125 million isn't an insignificant cap hit, but, on a one-year deal, there is little risk to it.  

Gostisbehere (and Holl)'s arrival does make life a bit more challenging for Detroit's young defenseman, most of all Simon Edvinsson.  Young players need ice time, so Edvinsson might find himself back in Grand Rapids, a scenario that would have seemed unlikely after his late-season call-up a year ago.  On the flip side though, I think there is a real benefit for Edvinsson to have to earn a place at the NHL level, rather than being handed one by virtue of a barren roster.

As it stands, Detroit has a shade over $10 million in cap space for the coming season per our friends at PuckPedia, so even after all those moves, the Wings could remain active on the free agent and trade markets in the coming days.