Sportnet's Elliotte Friedman provides on update on the Red Wings' three unsigned restricted free agents,
Sportnet's Elliotte Friedman provides on update on the Red Wings' three unsigned restricted free agents,
On the latest episode of his podcast, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman—arguably the NHL's best connected insider—had a series of updates on the Red Wings three unsigned restricted free agents: Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, and of course Jonatan Berggren.
Friedman began his update with Berggren, about whom he spoke with the most certainity. "I think Berggren gets done. I think the player and everybody involved there recognizes that Berggren has to be in camp. I don't see a situation where he sits out," Friedman explained. "I think they have an idea of what Seider and Raymond could look like, and, if they're not done, they'll just slide Berggren in there at a number where they think it can all work. I would be shocked if that one isn't sorted out well in advance of the season. It's too important for the player."
Friedman went on to explain he sees competing comparables that Raymond and his camp might be considering: "Raymond, I had mentioned the [Seth] Jarvis contract [eight years, $63.2 million] as a comparable. Jarvis is 7.9 [million] in actual cash, 7.4 [million] with the deferred money and the AAV. Because they both have one 30-goal season, Jarvis and Raymond, I thought it was perfect, and I had an agent tell me, I guarantee you that you are wrong in terms of what Raymond's people—his agent is JP Berry—are looking for. I said, 'Oh yeah, why do you think I'm wrong?' And they said, 'There's other players like [Tim] Stutzle, who's at a higher number [eight years, $66.8 million] than Seth Jarvis is. If you're an agent, you're going to pick the highest possible comparable, and, in this case, I think it's Stutzle."
Friedman added that the same agent advised him that "there are some teams out there that really try to remove the Ottawa contracts, like Stutzle's, as a comparable. They kind of talk about that as 'that's a contract that Ottawa needed to do because of where they were at the time and the message they were trying to send their market at the time,' but the teams think it's too high." Friedman suggested that Steve Yzerman is likely among those who would dismiss that Stutzle deal as an Ottawa issue.
Friedman had the least to add about Seider, instead sticking by his previous report that Seider will wind up with the biggest deal of the bunch, saying, "Seider, all I think about there is I think his number is above Raymond. I just don't know where this is gonna go here."
Friedman did bring up one more wrinkle that will impact both Raymond and Seider, concerning the logistics of getting recently signed European players to camp: "The other thing I've heard is I've heard some of these players who are coming in from Europe who don't have contracts yet, once they're signing, I've heard the visas are taking a long time. I don't know what you can do there. Ultimately, the negotiation's gotta come first, but someone was telling me it's taken a lot longer than people were hoping." That last detail likely won't do much to alter the terms of either deal, but it is a complication worth remembering as negotiations persist.
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