That the Detroit Red Wings still have around $8 million in salary cap space has something to do with what Steve Yzerman told one of his former players earlier this summer.
Locking up newcomer Alex DeBrincat through 2026-27 on a deal with a $7,875,000 annual average value still leaves the Wings flexibility, thanks partly to terminating the contract of Filip Zadina. When that was triggered last week, the Wings saved $1.825 million in salary cap space and $4.56 million in actual salary over the next two seasons, while Zadina walked away from the nearly $5 million in guaranteed salary.
“That’s a positive,” Yzerman said Monday. “I go back to, when we signed Filip a year ago, the feeling was he’s going to get better and continue to play a bigger role. Mostly through injury this year, that didn’t happen. I’d rather have a $1.8 million in cap space than potentially a player playing in the AHL. So, Filip wanted a fresh start. He’s able to do that. Good for him. And we’re able to put the not only the cap space but the actual dollars into other things.”
HIGH MARKS: Experts love Steve Yzerman’s Alex DeBrincat trade for Red Wings
The San Jose Sharks announced Monday afternoon, after Yzerman spoke, that they signed Zadina to a one-year, $1.1 million deal.
Terminating contracts isn’t that uncommon — the Wings and Jussi Olkinuora terminated his contract in February, freeing the Finnish goaltender to return to Europe. But Olkinuora was a minor leaguer with better prospects in Europe; Zadina is a 23-year-old former first-round pick trying to establish that he belongs in the NHL. He is unlikely to make what he walked away from over the next two years in that span. His salary with the Sharks is $720,000 less than what he was due to be paid by the Wings in 2023-24.
But credit Zadina this: He actually means it when he said it’s not about the money. He had requested a fresh start, and when Yzerman wasn’t able to trade Zadina, and no one claimed him off waivers, Zadina took a drastic option.
MORE ON ZADINA: Filip Zadina latest example how hard it is to get it right in NHL draft
“We discussed it, I brought it up with Filip earlier in the summer, discussed it with his agent a little bit,” Yzernan said. “Ultimately if he wanted a fresh start — I tried to trade him, we put him on waivers, just couldn’t move him. This is the only way to get a fresh start.
“I really respect him for making this decision. He’s not a dumb person. He knows what he’s given up. But his career is more important than the dollars and I wish him well, I really do. My experience with him was always good. He’s a nice young man, he’s worked hard, it just hasn’t worked out. I wish him good luck somewhere else.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.
Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.
Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.