Red Wings address several needs in free agency, but are they better?

www.mlive.com

Like the article suggests, I'm not entirely sure we're better on paper than last year.

Obviously there's more to a good hockey team than being good on paper though. What are everyone's thoughts?

7 comments

It feels like these moves were made to tread water until either the prospects develop or someone gets traded. It's basically seetting up a competition for roster spots and icetime for the prospects in training camp.
One thing we can't forget is that this off-season's FA crop was/is quite maligned. Everyone's been dogging it for months so we shouldn't now somehow expect to get dramatically better from it.
I don't mind the Holl deal at all. It's not a crazy amount of term or money and he's going to be quite serviceable. I also like that we can reduce some of the time that seider plays on the PK, bc while he's write capable it's also just hard minutes to play and there's injury risk given how winning he is to block a shot. Hell still play but Holl will eat time there.
I think Compher will be fine. It does feel like his deal is about 1x1m too large but I also think that's just what happens when you need to go to the market to fill gaps.
not discussed much yet it's that this is really our first chance to build some things with lalonde after him having a year under his belt and being able to evaluate some of our players (and us having another year with them). Zadina... we'll see...it's been ~4 years of still not quite all coming together. JFV has NHL level ability but has a long way to go to guarantee himself a nightly roster spot at C; he also doesn't have a contract yet.
At the end of the day, we have no choice but to replace Suter, erne, sundqvist, vrana, and Bert. Plus some AHL plugs. I think the signings and picks also show that the team isn't that sold on veleno long term. This off-season wasn't the one to change the trajectory of the team with moves. MAYBE getting debrincat would help that a bit, but it's no guarantee and clearly we're not the only ones with challenges getting alignment with him on contract terms. This is just the difficulty we face when not winning the lottery...elite talent isn't just available to take.
Finally, I think we're also locking up a couple of middle/depth pieces in Compher and Holl before the cap jumps slot next year and the spending increases. I'm not sure I love spending 8.5M on them combined annually, but it's really not that terrible. Again, the primary pause I have here is the term on Compher, but good luck picking up anyone to play top/middle 6 roles for less in FA. As much as I liked Suter, Compher is inarguably a better offensive option.
Hopefully berggren can take that next step for us and Ras returns with the form he had pre-injury. Maybe next year we go for big offense in FA.
I think the moves make a lot of sense. Keep the culture and team moving forward, and create some road blocks so the young guys have to earn the way on to the team. Ideally we will have Danielson and Kasper taking over the 2 and 3C spots from Copp and Compher who will then move to the winger spots. I know everyone wants those high end goal scorers, but look at Vegas. Depth and defense win cups, and that's what we are building towards.
- But that's why they needed to bring on Eichel to finally win a cup. We do really need a 25 - 30 goal scorer to be truly competitive.
It's still a bit early in free agency and the Wings could make more moves, but at the moment I think their signings have me whelmed.
I don't know if Detroit is "better" at the moment, but they have a roster seemingly primed to allow for the youths to get more ice time, and plenty of cap space to add to that if the right situation presents itself.
- Primed to allow which youth to get more ice time? We now have more players than spots, and that's only accounting for guys that played significant time in the NHL already like Bergren.
  Soderblom, Kasper, Johansson, Wallinder, and maybe even Edvinsson are going to have a hard time making the team. Obviously all three d shouldn't make it, but we have a lot of established NHL players that to me seems like it will make it tough for any one new to get significant minutes.
  
  I don't think Detroit signed any elite studs, so I think there's room for yr 2 expanded role for Bergren, and hopefully Soderblom makes himself more established. I expect Kasper and Edbinsson to play some, but it's hard to say how much. At this stage I'd like to pretend to be optimistic that one of these 4 will make a splash this season.
  I agree that we have more players than roster spots, so it's likely someone is getting moved, or the youths just aren't ready and will stay in the minors. Regardless, I drink all the Yzerplan Kool-aid.

7 comments