Detroit Red Wings add rugged Free Agent Defenseman

The Detroit Red Wings recently added a rugged defenseman in Patrik Nemeth via free agency. Nemeth signed a two-year deal with the Wings worth a reported 6-million dollars.

It’s a bit of a head-scratching signing for Steve Yzerman and the Detroit Red Wings. Patrik Nemeth is a big gritty, stay at home defenseman with no offensive upside. The 27-year-old defender spent the last two seasons as a member of the Colorado Avalanche.

I joked the signing is to protect Anthony Mantha. It was last December when Mantha was sticking up for his teammate Dylan Larkin when he broke his hand in a fight with Nemeth. Patrik lowered the boom on Larkin in the right corner, Mantha took exception, as the two exchanged blows somewhere along the way Mantha broke his hand.

This will be the second time the Red Wings signed a player that Anthony Mantha had recently broken his hand during a fight against. The other was Luke Witkowski who is currently an unrestricted free agent that the Wings have decided not to re-sign.

More from Detroit Jock City

Nemeth is a big 6’2 penalty-killing defenseman. The native of Sweden is a left-handed shot who recorded just one goal last season with the Avs. He totaled 10 points while accumulating 53 penalty minutes to go with his plus-5 rating. His CF% was below average coming in at 47.3% while averaging 16:29 TOI per game.

Nemeth should settle in as the Detroit Red Wings sixth defenseman likely playing with either Jonathan Ericsson or Madison Bowey on Detroit’s third pairing. Nemeth joins five other current Detroit Red Wings defenders with one-way deals. The previous two mentioned along with Trevor Daley, Mike Green & Danny DeKeyser.

Steve Yzerman may decide to start shopping one or both of Green and Daley as they are both entering the final year of their contracts to make room for Dennis Cholowski. Filip Hronek has seemingly already solidified himself as a top-four defender on the team which would make seven regulars currently rostered.

If Niklas Kronwall decides to return for another season, GM Steve Yzerman says there will be a spot on the roster for him. If that’s the case Cholowski, Bowey, Nemeth, and Ericsson will all be fighting for the final two roster spots.

Rasmussen Will Prove Himself Year Two. dark. Next

For the record; I’d much rather see Cholowski & Bowey play regularly over Ericsson, Daley or Nemeth. With the aging defense core recently having struggled to remain healthy, particularly last season it’s not a bad thing to have several bodies you can plug into the lineup. The issue is the Detroit Red Wings already have a plethora of “third pairing” defenders, so why add another one?

Home/Detroit Red Wings