Three Burning Questions for the Red Wings After Free Agency, Day One
On Detroit's future in goal, the potential for another splashy addition, and the day's impact on extensions for Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider
The NHL's annual July 1st dog and pony show has come and gone, and the first day of free agency is in the books. For the Red Wings, less than 24 hours removed from the re-signing of Patrick Kane, it was a mostly quiet entrance into unrestricted free agency. Detroit brought back beloved depth winger Christian Fischer at modest cost, added a Shayne Gostisbehere replacement in Erik Gustafsson, two goaltending options, and some veteran depth in William Lagesson and Sheldon Dries. With that business done, what's next for Steve Yzerman and his brain trust? I considered some options via three essential questions:
(I) Are the Red Wings happy with their current goaltenders?
Detroit brought in two veteran goaltenders yesterday: Cam Talbot and Jack Campbell. Campbell certainly won't start the year in the NHL after a disastrous '23-24 led to a buyout in Edmonton. Talbot is certainly an NHL goaltender still, but is he a credible starting option? Steve Yzerman seems to believe so, and after a 2.50 goals against average and .913 save percentage season in Los Angeles, it doesn't seem like a bad bet, but that doesn't mean Detroit is done maneuvering in net. Yzerman also suggested that—because of the difficulty of providing sufficient game and practice reps to three goalies at once—he would prefer not to carry three goaltenders again in the coming year as he did this season. That suggests one of Alex Lyon or Ville Husso's days may be numbered in Detroit.
(II) Is a splash yet to come via trade?
At the end of the season, Yzerman mentioned the need to bring in an "impact" forward to his team's top six. Unless you count retaining Patrick Kane (the significance of which I don't mean to diminish, merely that it is an acquisition, and therefore improvement, upon last year's team), Detroit hasn't done that yet. Meanwhile, the Red Wings were also rumored to be on the brink of a trade for Rangers captain Jacob Trouba at the draft. Obviously, that hasn't materialized yet either. Presumably, Yzerman still has lines in the water; the question is whether any will yield the bite he is looking for to strike a deal. The initial free agent rush is over, but a year ago, the biggest move of the offseason (the Alex DeBrincat trade) didn't come on July 1. It remains to be seen whether that will prove the case this summer.
(III) Did Detroit free up enough cap space to sign Lucas Raymond AND Moritz Seider to max-term deals?
In a bit of restricted free agent news on a day generally devoted to the UFAs, the Montreal Canadiens signed the 2022 number one overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky to a massive eight-year, $60.8 million extension. What does that have to do with the Red Wings? Simple, it's a reminder that to sign a young star to an eight-year extension, you have to offer that player a higher AAV than their hitherto performance actually justifies. Slafkovsky is coming off a nice encouraging developmental season, but at just 50 points, he would hardly seem a candidate for such a robust raise if that raise were for the next two or three seasons instead of the next eight. Was a quiet July 1 and the cap-clearing Jake Walman trade a bid to set the stage for eight-year extensions for Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond? We knew going into the summer those deals would be Yzerman's most important piece of business. The question was always term and dollars, not whether the two would stay. Now it's about time to answer that question, and it appears Detroit may be better equipped to max-term contracts, though of course that requires willingness from Seider and Raymond too.
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