It’s been a busy start to NHL free agency and now Steve Yzerman is bringing in some scoring depth. Daniel Sprong is getting a one-year deal worth $2 million.
Sprong recently turned 26 and is coming off a breakout season with Seattle. The journeyman winger scored 21 goals and 25 assists in 66 regular seasons. Sprong should no doubt step into an offensive specialist role in Detroit’s lineup.
One could also speculate that this signing may be an indicator of how the Alex Debrincat saga is going. I’m comfortable calling Sprong a Debrincat-lite.. And I mean that in a good way.
We dig this signing. Low-risk, high-reward and if the season goes south you have some valuable currency come trading deadline.
Per @HockeyViz, Sprong's isolated finishing skills have been consistently above-avg. There's a luck/variance effect, but if it craters with his new team in 2023-24 then the likely reason is that he's not getting shooting opportunities off the entry, vs fewer than 3 defenders. pic.twitter.com/CdeEw1lmeW
— Jack Han (@JhanHky) July 1, 2023
The Wings have also acquired defenseman Justin Holl and goaltenders James Reimer and Alex Lyon.
A lot more to come as free agency moves along. Make sure you subscribe!
