The Detroit Red Wings offseason is still full of rumors. The latest rumors surrounding the Red Wings involve veteran forward Nazem Kadri, who is testing out the free agent market. He’s fresh off of a Stanley Cup victory with the Colorado Avalanche and fresh off a big season, looking for a new contract.
The latest and greatest news seems to have the Red Wings on the shortlist to land veteran Nazem Kadri. While the Red Wings need to officially hammer out the details of a contract and get a done deal, the belief is that Steve Yzerman is working on getting something worked out.
He’s been in the league for 13 seasons and has spent time with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche. He came into the league with the Maple Leafs and appeared in their top-six for many years. He was a play-making forward with a little bit of an attitude that helped the team mount some offense.
After that, he joined the Avalanche continuing to be a force with the team’s offense. This past season, Kadri was able to mount a career-best performance. Now, as a free agent, he’s likely looking to capitalize on his big-time contract-year performance and earn some money on his likely last big contract.
What would it take for the Detroit Red Wings to sign Nazem Kadri?
Kadri appeared in 71 games during the 2021-22 season for the Avalanche, with a career-best 28 goals and career-best 59 assists, for a total of 87 points on the year, eclipsing his former best total of 61 points from the 2016-17 season. He’s 31 years old and going to be 32 as the season gets underway.
The Red Wings are rumored to be making a run, and I still think the team should avoid Kadri, but for all intents and purposes, let’s talk through what a contract might look like. Kadri will get a solid deal, especially with the season he just managed to muster up.
http://gty.im/1405671642
I’d anticipate Kadri to be looking for a multi-year deal that takes him through the rest of his prime years before he starts hitting the part of his career where it just tumbles downhill fast. The 2021-22 season might have been the peak for him, but he’s still going to get a solid contract.
If I were to have to put an exact deal together, I think Kadri gets a four-year deal with the Red Wings, costing $24 million in total with a $6 million average annual value to it. It seems like that would be the deal that takes the cake and brings him to Hockeytown.
[irp posts=”285278″]
It’s a contract that gives him four years here, taking him to the age of 36, and gives him a $6 million respectable AAV contract. Being a little loose with the predictions, I could see the contract swaying in the 2-5 year range, with an AAV of like $5.5-7 million overall.
The specifics of a Nazem Kadri deal lead to a bleak future.
The low-end seems like more of a quick deal, just giving him a home to re-evaluate at age 34 and hopefully piece together two more strong seasons. This seems unlikely to me since the older he gets, the more he will downgrade, but it’s certainly an option.
The high-end is a longer contract that keeps him here for some time and makes him some money with the understanding he’s not going to be the player he was in 2021-22 in five years, knowing there will be a steep decline.
For this exact reason, I’m out on Nazem Kadri. I think that he should be left alone, as I have said since day one. But his name is hot in the media right now, with the Red Wings amid those rumors.
I think he will not replicate what he did in 2021-22, and the Red Wings will pay him a hefty amount of money to deteriorate on the team’s roster. I suggested signing Andrew Copp to a multi-year deal instead as a younger option with a similar price tag, and Yzerman got that right, but signing Nazem Kadri is a bad idea.
