Holland talks draft; word on Bertuzzi: there is no word on Bertuzzi

by Ryan Weiss on Jun 10, 2010 11:03 AM CDT

Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland has had a busy schedule lately. He's inked his top off-season priorities, Tomas Holmstrom and Nicklas Lidstrom, to contract extensions, and is currently close to being extended long-term himself.

Holland found time in his busy schedule to appear on the radio program NHL Live, and talked draft possibilities for the Wings, who will have their highest pick (21st) since 2005:

"We've got some young defensemen coming," Holland said. "Probably, ideally, you'd like to find some forwards with some scoring touch. Again, if there's a defenseman there that we feel has fallen, we'll take him."

The young defensemen Holland is referring to is likely Jakub Kindl, who is expected to challenge for a spot in the third defensive pairing. More Holland:

"We're going to take the best player available. You just try to get as much talent as you can as quickly as you can and go to work trying to develop it into a finished product."

Last season Detroit used its first pick (in the second round) to draft Landon Ferraro.

Holland also discussed how contract talks are going with free agent forward Todd Bertuzzi, who was offered a two-year deal earlier this week:

"Obviously, in a cap world, the situation we're in, we don't have a ton of money. Todd had a great year for us, and I'm sure he's gonna have some decisions to make come July 1. We'll continue to talk to him. We'd like to have him back, but obviously, there's gotta be a fit financially for the player and for us. Talks are ongoing. We'll see where they go."

Detroit currently has about $53 million committed to 17 players for next season, and will have about $5-6 million in cap space to sign the rest of their restricted free agents and Bertuzzi (possibly Andreas Lilja as well). The deal for Bertuzzi is likely a slight pay cut overall, but front-loaded like the Holmstrom deal was. I'm guessing that the first year is the same salary as he made last season---$1.5 million---and the second year is in the $1-$1.3 million range, which would lessen the cap hit over the next two seasons.

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Bertuzzi

Interesting that he hasn’t signed a deal yet. It almost makes you wonder what type of cut they offered him, because you’ve got to think that he’s been asked to take a reduction like Lidstrom and Holmstrom did. He’s got a history of playing well enough to earn some big money (leaving for Anaheim in 2007) so we’ll see how that goes.

As a Wings fan, the draft doesn’t get me going like it does for other teams, but that’s because any player drafted by the Wings won’t see the NHL for a few years while they mold and polish them. However, now that we are in a cap world, I wonder how long the Wings can continue to wait and develop their players – older/more experienced players cost more, and the Wings may have to start moving away from their current policy and start injecting more youth (in other words, entry-level contracts) into the lineup.

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by Amerinadian on Jun 10, 2010 11:07 AM CDT reply actions

I would imagine it’s like a $1-1.2 million overall deal. They want to retain him, just not for much more than he was at because, let’s face it, the guy has massive potential to decline really quickly, would be an over 35 contract (meaning he counts towards the cap regardless of whether he retires after the third game of the season), etc. The last thing I want is to get stuck with Bertuzzi on our cap after he’s retired.

As far as youth, can the Wings brass just TRY Tatar up next year? This guy has all the potential in the world, and tore up the AHL pretty good last year. I’m not saying for the full season, just for a few games, get his feet wet so he can be a regular two years from now.

by eight_legged_freaks on Jun 10, 2010 11:42 AM CDT up reply actions