The Red Wings are paying $46.19 million for 12 players who have totalled 12 goals combined this season
5 years ago
Hey. How’s it going? Can you meet me down at the stat sheet?
It’s no surprise Ken Holland has had an issue in the past with overpaying for veteran players.
As it says in the title…
The Red Wings are paying $46.19 million for players who have totalled 12 goals this season. That’s currently 3 million per goal.
Of course, it’s early in the season yet. But let’s look at how things are going.
(data via NHLnumbers.com)
The breakdown: (sorted by age, in case you were wondering)
| Name | GP | G | A | Pts | Cap hit |
| Niklas Kronwall | 12 | 0 | 2 | 2 | $4,750,000 |
| Jonathan Ericsson | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | $4,250,000 |
| Trevor Daley | 11 | 1 | 2 | 3 | $3,166,666 |
| Thomas Vanek | 12 | 2 | 3 | 5 | $3,000,000 |
| Frans Nielsen | 11 | 0 | 6 | 6 | $5,250,000 |
| Mike Green | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | $5,375,000 |
| Darren Helm | 15 | 1 | 3 | 4 | $3,850,000 |
| Justin Abdelkader | 15 | 3 | 1 | 4 | $4,250,000 |
| Luke Glendening | 15 | 1 | 5 | 6 | $1,800,000 |
| Gustav Nyquist | 15 | 2 | 11 | 13 | $4,750,000 |
| Luke Witkowski | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $750,000 |
| Danny Dekeyser | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | $5,000,000 |
| Total | 129 | 12 | 37 | 49 | $46,191,666 |
I know it hurts, but I’ve got to be honest. That’s an incredible amount of lack of scoring.
Let’s look at it another way!
| Name | Points per game | Points per 82 |
| Niklas Kronwall | 0.17 | 13.7 |
| Jonathan Ericsson | 0.17 | 13.7 |
| Trevor Daley | 0.27 | 22.4 |
| Thomas Vanek | 0.42 | 34.2 |
| Frans Nielsen | 0.55 | 44.7 |
| Mike Green | 0.50 | 41.0 |
| Darren Helm | 0.27 | 21.9 |
| Justin Abdelkader | 0.27 | 21.9 |
| Luke Glendening | 0.40 | 32.8 |
| Gustav Nyquist | 0.87 | 71.1 |
| Luke Witkowski | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| Danny DeKeyser | 0.29 | 23.4 |
You know… still not great. With not a single one of these players not named Gustav Nyquist on pace for 45 points, you have to think that’s an indictment on Ken Holland’s abilities as a general manager, considering he’s signed each and every one of these players.
82 games at this pace averages out to about 73 or 74 goals, based on the average of each player’s production.
Considering that’s over two-thirds of the roster, it isn’t hard to see why Detroit finds itself near the bottom of the league standings.
The Wings are asking a heck of a lot out of Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin, and other young players, but as long as they’ve got this cavalcade of long, big contracts to players 27 and up, well, the playoff streak ain’t coming back anytime soon.
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