Detroit Red Wings: Things To Learn From Mitch Marner’s Holdout

The two Detroit Red Wings forwards are going to cause a stir next offseason for Yzerman and the Red Wings front office. The question remains, how will Athanasiou’s negotiations shake out for the organization?

Athanasiou is poised to have a phenomenal season with the acquisition of Valtteri Filppula, meaning he will slide to a winger position and have Filppula center his line. Mantha has grown into a big-bodied forward who can clean up in front of the net, using his body and strength to score from inside the dots and in front of the net, playing physical. Next season, Athanasiou and Mantha could plead for more money, causing a slight rift between the Red Wings and the two RFA’s.

This season, Athanasiou will make $3 million for the Red Wings after his last contract was signed after a holdout of his own, so what’s stopping it from happening again? Athanasiou has slotted into a top-three forward role for the Red Wings, and the consensus should be that he will stick around as this team moves back into a mode of competition rather than rebuild. Yzerman needs to make sure that he gets Athanasiou back, he may have to cave in a little bit, knowing that Athanasiou has caused a holdout once. He could likely be apt to do it again if things do not go his way, and that needs to be considered.

The Detroit Red Wings should be okay with upping his salary to around $6 million AAV going as high as $7 million AAV next offseason. If Athanasiou comes out asking for anything higher than $7 million (not as a ploy to get more), then the Detroit Red Wings could be on the hot seat knowing they will have other needs to fill.

They will have some wiggle room with the cap hit sitting at $44,608,332 with only eleven players on the roster next offseason. Essentially, they are in good shape with plenty of players to be added, including players that are RFA’s that will re-sign immediately for cheap to fill up some of those spots.