Detroit Red Wings: Three restricted free agents to avoid re-signing
By Bob Heyrman
It’s going to be a hectic offseason, whenever that occurs. When professional sports return, the Detroit Red Wings will have an abundance of decisions to make.
It will occur after we finally submerge this crisis, this frightful pandemic we are currently going through. At this point, we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We need to keep digging, helping each other, and eventually, that glimmer of hope will start to shine through the darkness. We will get through this when we finally do the Detroit Red Wings General Manager (GM) Steve Yzerman will have an agenda filled with offseason decisions to proceed with.
The Detroit Red Wings have an abundance of pending free agents, including restricted butting NHL stars Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha. Both first-line forwards are expected to find a hefty weekly pay raise entering the 2020-21 NHL season.
Other free agents to note are forwards Robby Fabbri, Taro Hirose, Evgeny Svechnikov, Matt Puempel, Chris Terry, Dominic Turgeon, Christoffer Ehn, Jimmy Howard, Madison Bowey, Trevor Daley, Jonathan Ericsson, Cody Goloubef, Adam Erne, Brendan Perlini, Sam Gagner and Dmytro Timashov.
As you can see, it’s a laundry list of mediocre talent that’s hopeful to be re-signed or at least find work elsewhere in the NHL.
The Detroit Red Wings are currently by far the worst team in the league. It’s an organization that is far from competing for a championship; in fact, it’s a group that doesn’t have a playoff hope for years to come. If you think Yzerman can fix this lackluster roster overnight, you are sadly mistaken.
Former GM Ken Holland continued to manage this organization just to get by, just good enough to make the playoffs and abruptly be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
I expect Yzerman to continue breaking down this roster, hopefully signing some impactful pieces in the offseason to pair with the free agents that should be retained. That being said, there are a few restricted free agents that should not be re-signed, along with the obvious unrestricted free agents Ericsson, Howard, and Daley.