Are the Detroit Red Wings and Simon Edvinsson playing a game of chicken?
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet joined NHL Tonight with Jamison Coyle, Mike Rupp, and Cory Schneider, and he was asked whether the looming December 1 deadline could accelerate the Detroit Red Wings’ trade of Simon Edvinsson.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Jamison Coyle: “Elliotte. I wanted to ask you about Edvinsson and that December 1 kind of deadline. So he has to sign with the team to be eligible to play this year in the National Hockey League. Correct?”
Elliotte Friedman: “That’s correct. He has to sign by December 1.”
Coyle: “Okay. Do you think by having that deadline, is that going to speed things up? Because here we are, at the first week of November here.”
Friedman: “No, I don’t necessarily think that because on some level, Jamison, I think it becomes a big game of chicken. Like, I remember when William Nylander went through this. He signed like 30 minutes before the deadline. If I remember correctly, it was 5 pm Eastern on December 1st that day.
And I think the Leafs were in Minnesota, and I believe he signed at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. So, like, it was close. It was really close. Like, the Leafs were starting to do their meetings and getting ready to prepare for that game. And all of a sudden, the news leaked that the players were told in the dressing room that Nylander had signed. They took that one right down to the end.
And I’m not sure that’ll happen in this case, but I have prepared myself for it. And again, like it’s Friday, so I’m starting to make a lot, a lot of my calls for tomorrow (Saturday). And right now, there’s a lot of people who seem to think that the Red Wings will, if they want, if the Red Wings feel that if we have to test him to see if his resolve is real, they’ll do it.”
NHLRumors.com Note: The Detroit Red Wings have multiple fronts they are working on. Not only do they have the Dylan Larkin trade request, but restricted free agent defenseman Simon Edvinsson also prefers a trade over signing an extension. Things got personal for Edvinsson as these contract negotiations took forever to get going. Remember, this is a player who wanted to be there. But given how the market has changed over the past year, some offers didn’t meet what he thought his value was.
The Red Wings were trying to fit him inside their internal cap. And maybe the reported seven-year offer that carried an $8.5 million AAV would have gotten it done last season, but not this season. Zeev Buium has a $9.38 million AAV on an eight-year deal. So things are at a standstill with Edvinsson.
Again, the asking price for both players is extremely high, but offers have come in that could have made a deal. While the Red Wings prefer to sign him, they will need to trade him. Simon Edvinsson continues to train on his own, trying to remain ready in case something happens. But the longer this goes, the more it feels like if he does stay in Detroit, it will be a one-year deal, or else he is playing in Sweden this season.
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