Main Photo: Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n
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Steve Yzerman<\/a> has decided to keep 28-year-old defenceman Olli Maatta<\/a> around for two more years. While possibly a trade deadline option with an expiring contract after this season, the Detroit Red Wings announced that Maatta has signed a two-year, $6 million contract extension at $3 million AAV.<\/p>\n UPDATE: The #RedWings<\/a> today signed defenseman Olli Maatta to a two-year contract extension. pic.twitter.com\/t8EOMwhiPK<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 16, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Red Wings will likely be sellers at the trade deadline this year, but have decided to keep Olli Maatta around moving forward. A first-round pick<\/a> of the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Maatta has played ten seasons in the NHL. During that stint, he has spent time with the Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks<\/a>, Los Angeles Kings,<\/a> and Red Wings. After having down years in terms of point production with the Kings, this season Maatta has put up 5 goals and 122 assists in 49 games for the Red Wings. Over his 49 games Maatta has<\/a> a respectable 44.12 CF%.<\/p>\n This move retains for Detroit a serviceable bottom pairing defenceman for the next two years at a manageable cap hit. While the young Red Wings are still moving through their rebuild, having players with NHL experience is a valuable piece of the puzzle. Not only does Maatta have a decade of NHL experience, but he was part of the 2015-15 Stanley Cup Champion Penguins team.<\/p>\n Olli Maatta’s point production has been decent this season, but he can really help round out the Red Wings defence as a defensive defenceman. After Moritz Seider<\/a> and Ben Chiarot, Maatta is third<\/a> on the Red Wings in blocking shots with 79. He has good hockey IQ and can help kill penalties. With cap space always being a valuable commodity and Dylan Larkin<\/a>‘s next contract still in question, locking Maatta up for two years can help with some predictability. This could turn out to be a smart signing by Yzerman as Maatta can solidify the defensive core with his play and experience and help mentor the rising youth of the Red Wings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Main Photo: Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports Steve Yzerman has decided to keep 28-year-old defenceman Olli Maatta around for two more years. While possibly a trade deadline option with an expiring contract after this season, the Detroit Red Wings announced that Maatta has signed a two-year, $6 million contract extension at $3 million AAV. Olli […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4428,"featured_media":135649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4547,4,34,4548],"tags":[5754,608],"class_list":["post-135646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey","category-redwings","category-news","category-nhl","tag-nhl-signing","tag-olli-maatta"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Olli Maatta Signs Two-Year Extension with the Detroit Red Wings<\/h2>\n
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What This Means for the Red Wings<\/h3>\n