Red Wings Willing to Go 7 years, $70M on Stamkos
Hockey insider Darren Dreger has reported that the Detroit Red Wings are prepared to offer up to $70 million over seven years to impending free agent superstar Steven Stamkos. Dreger also says that he believes the maximum dollar Stamkos will get is somewhere between $70M-$72M. This would be a max deal of sorts, as the Red Wings would be unable to offer Stamkos an eighth year.
The Red Wings are in need of a player like Stamkos after Pavel Datsyuk announced that he’s leaving for Russia. Stamkos has been linked to the Red Wings for some time, but it won’t be an easy sign. There are reports that indicate the Buffalo Sabers would be willing to go to $12M a year, although it is not clear how accurate that number is.
The Wings are still strapped with Datsyuk’s $7.5M cap hit, but with $7M+ coming off the books on July 1st, the Wings don’t necessarily need to move the contract. They are trying to move it to clear up space, but to make an offer to Stamkos, they have the space. Detroit has other needs, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do with the free space.
It seems that Stamkos won’t re-sign with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Stamkos won’t receive an offer more than $8.5M from Tampa and there seems to be a drift between him and head coach Jon Cooper.
It sure will be an interesting few days.
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I cannot believe the wings are willing to pay 7 million for an injured player that really can’t guarantee daily that he can even play,this is thru no fault of his own , but really one bump to hard and he is on the disabled list again and Detroit is back in the same position with no one that can consistently put the puck in the net . At this point what really is Stamkos worth ?