Detroit Red Wings: Mike Hoffman should be left alone by Steve Yzerman

The Detroit Red Wings have already had one heck of an offseason, but they need to steer clear of signing Mike Hoffman, who remains unsigned.

While the Detroit Red Wings could not spend another dollar and have an extremely successful offseason, one of the big-name free agents is still on the market. Forward Mike Hoffman is yet to sign somewhere and is someone that the Red Wings may target.

The Red Wings have more than enough cap room to make a big signing like that, but they should ultimately steer clear and avoiding signing the forward. There are a couple of reasons to avoid him, but the way the Red Wings offseason has gone, why sign anyone else when the team has made drastic improvements already.

This is not to say that the Red Wings are going to be a postseason team or anything near it, but their offseason additions have put them in a spot where they will be playing competitive hockey and be able to put but more than 17 wings like they did in 2019-20 where they had a 17-49-5 record.

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In 2019-20, Hoffman played in 69 games for the Florida Panthers, where he scored 29 goals and added 30 assists for 59 total points.

Hoffman was coming off an 82-game 2018-19 season where he scored 36 goals and added 34 assists for 70 total points.

Hoffman will be entering his tenth season in the National Hockey League, having spent seven years with the Ottawa Senators before being traded to the San Jose Sharks, who immediately flipped him and sent him to the Panthers.

His last contract was a four-year, $20.75 million contract that carried a $5.187 million cap hit annually.

He has been on the market for a while and has neglected to sign a contract yet. If the Red Wings go out and sign Hoffman, it will put a bit of a damper on the offseason.

There are a few different reasons that the Detroit Red Wings should steer clear of Mike Hoffman.

While, yes, signing Hoffman would add quite a bit of offense and allow the Red Wings to create some excitement with their top-six forwards. However, there are a few reasons that the Red Wings should steer clear.

The timeline of this rebuild just does not sit well with Hoffman. He is 30 years old and not really going to be getting a whole lot better. Like, he should still be a good player, but the development is not going to change much based on where he is.

Given his age, he just does not line up too well with the Red Wings rebuild that Yzerman is orchestrating. Secondly, the Red Wings have had a great offseason that leaves them with a bunch of cap room.

So, yes, they can afford a new signing, but they should save this cap room for in-season trades where they look to purchase players as deals where the Red Wings get sweeteners to make the deal more worthwhile.

The only way the front office should even consider this deal is if the Red Wings go out and sign Hoffman to a one-year deal, looking to move him before the trade deadline to a team that is competing for a playoff spot.

However, Hoffman would be unlikely to sign a deal like that when he can likely get a multi-year deal somewhere else.

The Detroit Red Wings have had many successful moves this offseason; signing Mike Hoffman does not seem like it would be one of the smarter moves they’ve made.