Many put Detroit at the bottom of the standings when predicting this upcoming season. And for teams trending downwards, "rebuilding" is a term used quite often. In DET case, rebuilding is definitely is something we've seen happening with the team over the past couple seasons. The issue however is all of the Wings long term contracts that their veteran players own. It's really hindering this rebuild.

Frans Neilsen, 33 years old, $5.25mil cap hit for another 5 years
Justin Abdelkader, 30 years old, $4.25mil cap hit for another 6 years
Darren Helm, 30 years old, $3.85mil cap hit for another 3 years
Jonathan Ericsson, 33 years old, $4.25 cap hit for another 3 years
Tevor Daley, 33 years old, $3.16mil for another 3 years

Not counting the contracts still left to vets like Zetterberg (36yo, $6mil X4), Franzen (37yo, $4mil X 3) <- he's on IR but still costing the team $$$, and Kronwall (36yo, $4.75 X 2).

While most of these vets a still good NHLers, their contracts aren't exactly movable ones.

Detroit does have a solid prospect pool building up (Larkin, Mantha, Frk, Rasmussen, Cholowski to name a few) but when it gets to the point that they can't even sign their guys to bridge deals (see A.Athanasiou), somethings gotta give...

Usually moving bad contracts requires giving up picks or young assets, but for a rebuilding team this isn't really an option.

Anyone have any thought s on how to fix Detroit's messy situation?

getting rid of Ericsson and Abdelkader would be the first steps. They would have to give up Svechnikov for someone to take their devastating contracts

Ericsson is probably one of the most likely to move imo. No way a team takes Abdelkader signed at $4.25 per year until he's 36

Who likes my trade idea?


Jonathan Ericsson


3rd rounder
5th rounder

Detroit gets picks for a guy who likely won't be playing many games while also getting rid of some cap.
Carolina gets an experienced D to help out the young guys.

Ericsson has full control of any trades this year and then a 19 team no trade list begins July 1 2018

doesn't make any sense, like always.
how is adding an expensive, bad hockey player "helping the young guys"? you twist some GM lingo you've heard somewhere and act like it's coherent logic

He's not a bad hockey player? They have the cap space anyway.

Why does CAR need another defensemen? They have Faulk, Hanifin, Pecse, and Slavin, with Jake Bean and Hayden Fleury coming up...

That’s a terrible trade for Carolina. Ericsson sucks

All better than Ericsson...

There is no quick solution for what is happening in Detroit. They can't even fit Athanasiou under the cap. What happens when they need to pay Larkin and Mantha? Most of these contracts are immovable. I think the first thing they need to do is move someone like Nyquist, so they can actually get something of value for him. Then they can work on moving someone like Ericsson.

they don't need one, but they could use an experienced bottom pairing D like Ericsson. He'd lose his spot in the lineup quickly but he'd bring some experience for their top 4.

I know it's a bad trade when a fellow Capfriendly GM inserts the "to help out the young guys." Sorry that's why Carolina has other players and coaches. Not to trade for 4.25m declining player. They, and any team can spend money better.
Well at least you didn't you the term "veteran leadership."

So basically only contending teams. A team like Pittsburgh could be interested if the Wings can retain salary.

Well they could fail them on the physical at start of year sending them home or some BS like that . Otherwise hire Dean Lombardi as their GM, he can shaft them like he tried to do with Mike Richards... Maybe they can trade them for a guy with a bad contract or over paid goalie. Like an injured player like the Clarkson thing, most likely they will have to do buyouts or just wait it out hoping the cap goes up enough to help give them enough room to add players. Bury a few in the minors, try to get them to retire if that helps, a desperate team near the trade deadline might deal for some of them if they can get hot... Usually deals are setup in a way where can buy them out without as much damage in the right year... Like if Brown wasn't doing well in LA, they probably would buy him out after this season since the costs for that wouldn't be so bad compared to if it was this year etc... Lots think they will buy out Gaborik at this point, if they get a young player on ELC who is producing for the cheap its easier to handle... So hopefully they get a nice pick from lottery for a player who can produce now to help them afford buyouts or over paid contracts until they are up.

Actually, the first step is firing Ken Holland

Well, his team just lost 10-1 against the habs of all teams.

Yeah i agree ken holland , thank you for the years but please lets clean outthe front office and coach and start fresh. Do our best to sign the young guys but most important get some cap relief. If that means tatar or ericsson , i dont care who as long as they sign mantha and larkin and AA rhis offseason. If you have to sign older vets on single year deals to fill out the roster thats fine the next couple years. Id rather have p a parentau or drea stafford for 1 year than pay helm or neilson for multiple

no mention of Danny D's contract? His, Nielsons and Nyquist are the worst contracts on the team because they under perform every season. Nyquist and Nielson get paid like they produce 60 points a season..

They’re massively f***** lol

with the limited cap 6+m space why doesn't a team do up offer sheets of 4m to both Larkin and Mantha it would force Detroit to make changes or lose one of those players for a 2nd rd pick.

Wings do get cap relief of 4m with LTIR Franzen and probably 4.75m if Kronwall is on LTIR, so he Wings do have cap room. Out of playoffs teams should have more cap space, just too many players not living up to their contracts, which was mostly due to Holland.