Per the team’s site and social media platforms, the Detroit Red Wings, one day after voting in favor of starting a lockout tomorrow, have announced the signings of free agent defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo and RFA forward Justin Abdelkader.
The team never publicly releases monetary terms, but have said that the Colaiacovo deal is for two years and the Abdelkader contract is for four. Every digger with a site has told us the Colaiacovo deal is for a total of $5M over those two years and it seems as though the Abdelkader deal will have an AAV at $1.75M. (Update: Ansar Khan has the breakdown at $1.8M and the year-by-year salary breakdown on his Twitter feed)
Now that the team has 7 NHL D-men on their roster, 16 forwards, and 3 goalies, they can start training ca…. nope.
These deals have been done for two days, but the Wings chose to announce them today. Maybe I’m just feeling extra-cynical, but this feels more like an attempt to distract from the lockout. Once we actually get back to hockey, Ken Holland is going to have to make some decisions about the team’s depth at forward and what he’s going to do with Joey MacDonald.
