The Red Wings have signed another guy.
The team announced Wednesday evening that forward Mason Appleton has signed a two-year contract at $2.9 million AAV. Appleton has played seven seasons in the NHL — 400 games on the nose. Most of them with the Winnipeg Jets.
Appleton, a former MSU Spartan, scored 22 points (10-12–22) in 71 games this past season. The season before, he had a career-high 36 points (14-22–36) in all 82 games of the 2023-2024 regular season. He’s not going to light it up, but he is sought after as a bottom-six utility player. Type of guy you can just plug in at wing or center. That’s exactly what he will be doing in Detroit. Appleton is basically a slightly-larger JT Compher, just cheaper.
I’d say $2.9 million is maybe a touch high, but I have to remind myself that this is the market rate for players like. Lots of NHL experience and can just play. I’m not sure if Appleton will make Detroit a tougher team to play against, but consider me intrigued. Detroit has just over $12 million in cap space remaining according to PuckPedia. Steve Yzerman STILL has buying power at his disposal.
