Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman acknowledged that his Detroit Red Wings don’t have the money to bring back all their free agents Saturday, a symptom of expensive free agents and narrow cap space
Since the season ended, Steve Yzerman has been asked about the status of his free agents. Every time, the Detroit general manager has answered that the Red Wings were working to get them re-signed. He would be in communication with agents. He would do what he could to bring guys back. Especially for star winger Patrick Kane and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, Yzerman wanted to stay in negotiations as long as he could.
Saturday after the NHL Draft, Yzerman struck the same chords, but this time there was a different tone. This time, he acknowledged the elephant in the room directly: some of the free agents probably won’t be Red Wings much longer.
“We’re just not gonna have enough money to bring everybody back,” Yzerman told reporters. “It’s not the way it’s gonna work. And we’d love to bring everybody back but we’re not bringing everybody back, and we’re trying to make these deals with all these guys that allow us to bring them all back. But I’m not sure we’ll be able to do that.”
What Yzerman said about potential departures isn’t shocking to anyone who’s opened up the Red Wings’ CapFriendly page (at least, as long as they can). The Red Wings have roughly $32.7 million in cap space to work with, but they have a number of big contracts to sign including those of Kane, Gostisbehere, David Perron and restricted free agents Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond. And while the RFAs are all but guaranteed to return, it's those UFAs who Yzerman is working so hard to bring back.
Yzerman knows the math doesn't add up to run his roster back, even after Detroit made it so close to a playoff spot last season. He’s going to have to make tough decisions on who stays and who goes.
“It’s not just do we like the player, it’s do we like them at the dollar amount,” Yzerman said. “Whoever it is, if we like them at X dollars and we can fit it in, we’ll try to do that.”
For example, Patrick Kane at $2.75 million is a different player than Patrick Kane at $5 million. If there’s a better, more cost effective deal elsewhere, Yzerman is willing to do it. For Detroit, cap space isn’t just a fund to re-sign free agents. Rather, it’s a pool of money to make itself a better team, whether that be through UFA extensions, through trades or through the UFA market July 1.
Yzerman is patiently calculating, even as the clock winds closer to zero.
“We're prepared if we can get somebody at the right number. (If) not, we'll wait,” Yzerman said. “We're confident that we'll fill our roster out one way or the other.”
This isn’t exactly new territory for Yzerman. He’s willing to sweat out negotiations. His poise is best evidenced in how he waited to sign Steven Stamkos when he was with Tampa Bay until the 11th hour, bringing back the Lightning captain with an eight-year deal. But this time given the cap circumstances, Yzerman might be forced to figure out what happens if he lets a star walk for free.
Right now, the Red Wings are at an impasse, but the ticking clock of July 1 is going to force them to clear up their contracts. As much as Yzerman’s different tone Saturday shows the escalation of Detroit’s contract situation, all he can do is continue trying to sign his guys.
At least, as many as he can.
