As long-awaited relief, in the form of its injured stars, slowly trickles its way into the Red Wings locker room, a new headache arrives for Detroit's front office. And while I'm sure Ken Holland has had enough roster-related headaches this season to last him a lifetime, these are much more desirable issues to deal with.
With about two thirds of the season in the record books, the perennial powerhouse of Motown only leads the league in one category -- injuries. Well... almost. The ailing Wings have lost 264 man-games to injury, second only the cellar-dwelling Edmonton Oilers. But with long-term injured players like Filppula, Kronwall, Williams, Ericsson and Dan Cleary recently returning from the shelf with Holmstrom, Franzen and Andreas Lilja set to make an imminent comeback, the salary cap now becomes the focus for Wings' GM, Ken Holland.
"Long-Term Injury Relief" in most cases does not live up to its name. This case is no exception. Detroit, while they officially are entitled to relief are still placed in a very difficult situation in order to comply with the guidelines of the CBA. A situation only brought about by the plethora of injuries sustained during the course of the tumultuous season. Prior to the season, Detroit's head office was anticipating the ability to, if needed, acquire a $3m-$5m player at the trade deadline. Now, without unloading a significant contract, a deal of that sort is out of the question.
The issue for Holland lies in the fact that, injured players still do count as cap hits whilst assigned LTI status. The relief that is granted is not equal to the pro-rated cap hit of the "replacement" players of long-term injuries but rather the amount they're required to exceed the cap to offset those injuries with replacements. As a result of this, a team getting LTIR is effectively spending the exact amount of the daily cap allowance and not accruing additional space for the future.
The bottom line is now, in order to become compliant, contracts need to come off Detroit's payroll. Justin Abdelkader was recently assigned to Grand Rapids in an easy decision for Holland due to his waiver exempt status. The rest of the decisions won't be so easy. As seen with Kyle Quincey, losing players to waivers is just part of the business of being a GM, and unfortunately, history will most likely repeat in Hockeytown. Chances are players including, but not limited to Brett Lebda, Ville Leino and veteran 4-time Cup-winner Kirk Maltby, will all be exposed to waivers if a trade cannot be negotiated and a trade will be tough with any of them. While there are other choices for contracts to shed, the removal of said contracts seem to make the most sense at this time.
Whatever the case, change is needed and will come in Detroit. Wings' fans just hope it's for the better.
With about two thirds of the season in the record books, the perennial powerhouse of Motown only leads the league in one category -- injuries. Well... almost. The ailing Wings have lost 264 man-games to injury, second only the cellar-dwelling Edmonton Oilers. But with long-term injured players like Filppula, Kronwall, Williams, Ericsson and Dan Cleary recently returning from the shelf with Holmstrom, Franzen and Andreas Lilja set to make an imminent comeback, the salary cap now becomes the focus for Wings' GM, Ken Holland.
"Long-Term Injury Relief" in most cases does not live up to its name. This case is no exception. Detroit, while they officially are entitled to relief are still placed in a very difficult situation in order to comply with the guidelines of the CBA. A situation only brought about by the plethora of injuries sustained during the course of the tumultuous season. Prior to the season, Detroit's head office was anticipating the ability to, if needed, acquire a $3m-$5m player at the trade deadline. Now, without unloading a significant contract, a deal of that sort is out of the question.
The issue for Holland lies in the fact that, injured players still do count as cap hits whilst assigned LTI status. The relief that is granted is not equal to the pro-rated cap hit of the "replacement" players of long-term injuries but rather the amount they're required to exceed the cap to offset those injuries with replacements. As a result of this, a team getting LTIR is effectively spending the exact amount of the daily cap allowance and not accruing additional space for the future.
The bottom line is now, in order to become compliant, contracts need to come off Detroit's payroll. Justin Abdelkader was recently assigned to Grand Rapids in an easy decision for Holland due to his waiver exempt status. The rest of the decisions won't be so easy. As seen with Kyle Quincey, losing players to waivers is just part of the business of being a GM, and unfortunately, history will most likely repeat in Hockeytown. Chances are players including, but not limited to Brett Lebda, Ville Leino and veteran 4-time Cup-winner Kirk Maltby, will all be exposed to waivers if a trade cannot be negotiated and a trade will be tough with any of them. While there are other choices for contracts to shed, the removal of said contracts seem to make the most sense at this time.Whatever the case, change is needed and will come in Detroit. Wings' fans just hope it's for the better.
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