Outside the box idea: Punt on the 2019 draft for the most part, clear the bad contracts, rebuild (maybe offer Tavares and Karlsson (in 2019) a couple of blank checks? Lets see what happens.
2017: after the trades, Detroit signs a couple vets to 1 year deals to fill out roster. They end the season with roughly $24mill in cap space. 10.75Mill of that goes to Mantha(4.75), Larkin(4.75), and Bertuzzi(1.25). Red Wings sign Tavares for $11mill/year leaving DET with just under $1mill in cap space after signing Coreau going into 2018-2019.
Wings package enough picks together to move up and draft Andrei Svechnikov in the first round as the jewel of a big draft.
2018: Wings end the season with roughly $15mill in cap space after the contracts of Howard, Witowski, Ouellet, Jensen, and Kronwall(who retires) contracts end. Detroit makes Erik Karlsson the highest paid D-man ever with a $10mill deal. Wings then resign Jensen to a bridge deal worth $2mill. Howard takes a hometown discount after Wings show loyalty to him trading Mrazek in 2017 and signs a 2 year deal worth 3 mill each, giving Keith Petruzzelli time to develop into the Wings' #1 goalie.
Wings go into the 2019-2020 season with a lineup of: Tavares, Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou, Tatar, Abdelkader, Svechnikov,Bertuzzi, Sheahan, Glendenning, Frk, Smith, Rasmussen, Karlsson, DeKeyser, Daley, Jensen, Rasmuss, Russo, Colowski,Saarijarvi, Howard, Coreau. Maybe the new additions even convince Zetterberg to stick around for another chance to compete for a cup
Unless Det. retains half of Helm's salary, he's got to have negative value. (also wouldn't fit the Pens budget of $2M for a 3C), and even then they wouldn't give much. 4 years for a 30 year old player at $3.85M is not good, esp. when that guy hasn't topped 33 points in a season.
Since CGY had a shot at Mrazek this offseason and didn't bite, I think the only way that deal works is if he plays better to start the year. And at that point why not just keep him. I also think you'd have to retain more of Helm's salary to have PIT go for it. I think everything else makes sense.
But what I love about this is it is creative as hell and would put them back in contention faster and speed up the rebuild Holland has stuck on crawl. 15 picks in one draft!? Sign me right up for that. Maybe maneuver like BOS 2015 and get 3 picks in a row.
Since CGY had a shot at Mrazek this offseason and didn't bite, I think the only way that deal works is if he plays better to start the year. And at that point why not just keep him. I also think you'd have to retain more of Helm's salary to have PIT go for it. I think everything else makes sense.
But what I love about this is it is creative as hell and would put them back in contention faster and speed up the rebuild Holland has stuck on crawl. 15 picks in one draft!? Sign me right up for that. Maybe maneuver like BOS 2015 and get 3 picks in a row.
CGY didn't bite because they don't have any picks to give up. But they are loaded with good young D-men so they pay a smaller price in their 7th or 8th D man for a goalie who will be with them for 10 years.
As a Red Wings fan I am more than willing to forgo the 2019 draft to clear the decks and make something similar to this happen, or just to start the rebuild the right way.
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