In Red Wings Land

FABBRILOUS: Red Wings sign forward Robby Fabbri to three-year extension – WIIM

Robby Fabbri has molded into being a valuable piece of the younger-side-of veterans on this roster. Steve Yzerman acquired him for basically nothing, all due respect to Jacob de la Rose.

Just in case you missed this and somehow jumped directly into Quick Hits without looking at any of our other front page articles.

That one has Kyle’s take and I’m sharing it so I can give my own. Here goes:

I like it.

$4M is right around Fabbri’s value. The team is going to be relying on saving cap hit elsewhere with players who don’t have more negotiating power.

Outside of that, the only other real update is that Tyler Bertuzzi said he hasn’t reconsidered his vaccination stance, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. I haven’t reconsidered mine either. I’m pretty confident that neither have you.

Around the League

Khudobin placed on waivers by Stars: report – NHL

Stars general manager Jim Nill told the paper the move was made for two reasons: to free up a roster spot and that the 35-year-old goalie needs to play games.

We shouldn’t claim him, but I like him so this is sad news.

Which NHL teams have built around their stars the best (and worst) – NBC

I took each team’s top two forwards in terms of salary cap hit.

Looked at how those teams performed from a goals for and goals against perspective without them on the ice.

This only takes into account 5-on-5 scoring. While special teams are important, your best players are going to play the bulk of the power play time and impact it, while 5-on-5 play is generally a good barometer for what a team is really capable of.

I don’t know how valuable this really is because it ignores a lot of context but Detroit is one of the ten worst teams in goal differential without Larkin & Bertuzzi on the ice, a piece of evidence the author cites as being an indication of a really bad team. Interestingly, Detroit wasn’t in the bottom ten last year.