Red Wings Acquire and Extend Alex DeBrincat

After a prolonged negotiation, Detroit acquires Alex DeBrincat and signs him to a four-year extension

The negotiations were longer and more public than either general manager would have preferred, but in the end, it was the conclusion everybody expected: Alex DeBrincat returns to his home state and agrees to an extension to stay awhile now he's made it at last.  

The Detroit Red Wings acquired DeBrincat's RFA rights from the Ottawa Senators and signed him to a four-year, $7.875 million extension.  In return, Detroit sent the Senators Dominik Kubalik, Donovan Sebrango, a conditional first round pick, and a fourth round pick in 2024.

Per our friends at PuckPedia, the Red Wings will have the option of sending their own 2024 first rounder or the conditional 2024 first rounder they acquired from Boston for Tyler Bertuzzi.  That pick from Boston is top ten protected in 2024, but even if it slips to 2025, the Wings could still use it as payment to Ottawa.  PuckPedia also reported that DeBrincat's contract includes a 16-team approved trade list, which will take effect July 1, 2024.  

In the short term, that pick has the potential to make DeBrincat and Bertuzzi, who signed a one-year deal in Toronto (the kind he never wanted in Detroit), a narrative-rich individual match-up within the Atlantic Division.

Detroit has been closely linked to DeBrincat throughout the summer, but the draft and then the start of free agency came and went without a move.  DeBrincat loomed over general manager Steve Yzerman's post-free agency presser though his name was never uttered.

"It's probably still not where we'd like it to be," said Yzerman last week of his team's goalscoring prospects for the coming season, even if he'd just stressed the importance of internal improvement.  The chase for DeBrincat continued.

By the time the deal went official, you could make out the framework by which either GM can argue that a benefit came from working slowly.  

Senators GM Pierre Dorion got a first round pick and, in Kubalik, a player who can fill some version of the role DeBrincat was supposed to fit when he arrived last summer.

With Yzerman, there were two pressure points to manage: the return for Ottawa and the extension for DeBrincat.  With the Sens, Yzerman gave away a roster player whom off-season acquisitions DeBrincat and Daniel Sprong left redundant and a future first rounder that doesn't require Yzerman to part with any of Detroit's own picks if he doesn't want to.  

At the same time, Yzerman never appeared desperate for DeBrincat's services and thus didn't stumble a seven- or eight-year contract extension.  The NHL salary cap's direction of travel has been even more inscrutable than ever since COVID first brought it to a halt, but checking in a shade under $8 million for a premier goalscorer in his prime looks like great value, and there is supposed to be a nice bump to the cap next summer.  

For that same reason, it doesn't make much sense for DeBrincat to commit to an eight-year deal this summer either.  Four years for a 25-year-old meets the description of what Yzerman called an ideal target earlier this summer: a player who can become part of Detroit's core for years to come.

In DeBrincat, Detroit brings in an outstanding dual-threat creator, who will go a long way toward relieving the Wings' long-standing struggles with goal scoring.  Where J.T. Compher will help solidify Detroit's forward group down the middle, DeBrincat can provide some of the finishing touch the Wings have lacked in recent years.  He could provide Dylan Larkin with a fearsome line mate, or he could provide an alternative scoring line.  

DeBrincat never fit in Ottawa, but that doesn't mean the heights of his production (a pair of forty-goal seasons in Chicago) were a mere by-product of playing alongside Patrick Kane.  If anything, it's the aging Kane who's suffered worse at losing DeBrincat as a running mate after the trade last summer.

For Red Wings fans, the best news is that DeBrincat's arrival checks off the box about which they cared most: bringing in a proven NHL sniper. With 187 goals in 450 career games and a career 14.4 shooting percentage, DeBrincat can stake a comfortable claim to that mantle. Throw in the fact that he grew up in Farmington Hills, his age profile, and the team friendly contract, and it's an outstanding piece of off-season business from Yzerman and company.