Some fun news to kick off the NHL free agency post-draft extravaganza this Sunday morning in regards to a forward we’ve heard linked to the Red Wings.
Alexander Radulov could not find an NHL team willing to pay his asking price. He has signed with KHL Salavat.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 26, 2016
Radulov, who’ll be thirty on July 5th was said to want an NHL deal this season, to the point where he was in the United States during the IIHF World Championships in Russia earlier this year. The Red Wings were among Radulov’s suitors, going so far as to reportedly offer him a one-year deal worth between four and five million dollars.
Radulov’s reported asking price was a two-year deal with a $7.5M AAV.
While many of us figured that this would be a starting point for negotiations, Radulov likely got much closer to his asking price from Salavat than from any NHL team, especially considering how much the Steven Stamkos sweepstakes seems to have been heating up lately.
Radulov showed in Nashville that he can absolutely score at the NHL level, but with prior behavior and uncertainty about what his great scoring pace in the KHL would translate to, it’s not surprising that no NHL team would chance such a large contract on him. All it means for Detroit is that there’s one less Plan B option out there in their search for more scoring next season.
