{"id":72672,"date":"2020-04-05T17:31:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-05T21:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/?p=72672"},"modified":"2020-04-05T17:31:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T21:31:20","slug":"which-detroit-red-wings-upcoming-restricted-free-agents-should-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2020\/04\/05\/which-detroit-red-wings-upcoming-restricted-free-agents-should-stay\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Detroit Red Wings Upcoming Restricted Free Agents Should Stay"},"content":{"rendered":"

After what seems to be an early end to an abysmal season from the Detroit Red Wings<\/a>, we have some time to look at the future.\u00a0 There are still some unknowns such as draft position and potential trades.\u00a0 But what we do know is this roster has a lot of potential for turn over this offseason.\u00a0 There are plenty of upcoming restricted free agents and unrestricted free agents on the current list. Some who will be resigned, some who won’t, and plenty who could go either way.\u00a0 So in our first look in this series, let’s take a look at our definite keepers.<\/p>\n

Detroit Red Wings Restricted Free Agents<\/h2>\n

Forwards<\/h3>\n

Anthony Mantha<\/a><\/strong>:\u00a0 Mantha is the start of the no-brainer keepers who will be due to be resigned.\u00a0 The real question will be about the term and the AAV of his new deal.\u00a0 Mantha has a history of injury that will work against him when it comes to this contract negotiation.\u00a0 In his four full seasons, he has only played in 78% of available games.\u00a0 And this season, he only played in 43 of 71 games.<\/p>\n

But with that said, he still managed 16 goals and 38 points for a .88 Points Per Game average, the best of his career thus far.\u00a0 Not only that, but he has never had a down year when it comes to his possession numbers.\u00a0 His Corsi and Fenwick percentages this year were 54.2% and 55.8%, respectively.\u00a0 Those are outstanding numbers for a horrible team.<\/p>\n

Mantha will be 26 years old by the start of next season and is coming off a bridge deal where he made $3.3 million AAV.\u00a0 Expect him to receive a sizeable raise this summer as he is a core player for the future success of the franchise.\u00a0 Expect a multi-year contract north of $6 Million per season.\u00a0 The biggest question is, will this negotiation require the player and team to go to arbitration.<\/p>\n

Tyler Bertuzzi<\/a><\/strong>: Bertuzzi is another no-brainer resigning for management this season.\u00a0 He may not have the flash and produce points like Mantha does, but he is a heat and soul guy the teams need.\u00a0 Bertuzzi does the hard work in the corners, stands up for teammates, gets to the front of the net, and cashes in on the fruits of his labor with skilled hands in tight burying rebounds and with some fantastic deflections.\u00a0 And even in this shortened season, he tied last season’s career-high in goals with 21 and set a new high in points with 48.<\/p>\n

Once again, Yzerman and company will be looking at a player due for a sizeable raise. Bertuzzi is just finishing up a two-year contract that saw him make $1.4 per season.\u00a0 While he won’t be receiving an increase in the level of Mantha, we’ll expect to see him cash in somewhere around 4-4.5 million dollar range.\u00a0 Once again, the term will be a more significant sticking point.\u00a0 They could do a short-term deal, but with only two seasons before he is eligible to become a UFA, management may want to lock him up to a long-term contract.<\/p>\n

Robby Fabbri<\/strong><\/a>: Fabbri was a fantastic mid-season addition to this Red Wings line up.\u00a0 Traded one-for-one for Jacob de la Rose, from the St. Louis Blues, it is easy to see who got the best out of this deal.\u00a0 Since Fabbri arrived in Detroit, he became an instant fan favorite with his on-ice performance.\u00a0 In his 52 games wearing the Winged-Wheel, Fabbri has 14 goals and 31 points.\u00a0 That’s good for a .6 Points Per Game pace.<\/p>\n

Producing on the score sheet is something many knew he was capable of, but after a few injury-riddled seasons, his career had become in jeopardy.\u00a0 Not only that, but he lost his place in the lineup with the Blues, which facilitated his trade to Detroit.\u00a0\u00a0 Fabbri is still a young player, having just turned 24 years old is finishing a one-year contract, where he made only $925K.\u00a0 Seeing as how well Fabbri fits into the lineup, we should expect him to receive a two- or three-year extension paying him somewhere around $2.5-3 Million per season.<\/p>\n

Defence<\/h3>\n

Madison Bowey<\/a><\/strong> is the Red Wings only RFA defenceman.\u00a0 He was acquired one year ago at the trade deadline from the Washington Capitals for Nick Jensen<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 In just his third season in the NHL, he played in 53-games, setting a career-high with 17-points.\u00a0 His production from the back end will be even more critical in the future with the departure of Mike Green<\/a><\/strong> to Edmonton. The loss of Green should lead to Bowey seeing more time on the powerplay as well; he averaged 41 seconds on the powerplay this season.<\/p>\n

To say his overall defensive game needs work would be an understatement.\u00a0 But he is a young defenceman on a terrible team.\u00a0 The positives of that there is still plenty of room to grow and develop his game.\u00a0 He was fifth on the team in blocked shots with 58.\u00a0 He also averaged 1:21 TOI while shorthanded.<\/p>\n

Expect to see an improved and motivated Madison Bowey come into training camp.\u00a0 He’ll have a new short-term contract that he will be trying to prove he deserves.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After what seems to be an early end to an abysmal season from the Detroit Red Wings, we have some time to look at the future.\u00a0 There are still some unknowns such as draft position and potential trades.\u00a0 But what we do know is this roster has a lot of potential for turn over this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3148,"featured_media":58423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[4],"tags":[95],"class_list":["post-72672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redwings","tag-detroit-red-wings"],"modified_by":"Gabriel Foley","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72672","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\/3148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}