Shawn Horcoff walked into Wednesday with one major win already in hand: Alex DeBrincat is staying in Detroit for seven more years at an average of $13 million per season. But the Detroit Red Wings interim general manager wasn’t getting much time to soak it in, because the conversation quickly swung to the situation that still hangs over the team - restricted free agent Simon Edvinsson.
Horcoff said the Red Wings are still trying to close that deal, even as Edvinsson has now missed Detroit’s first six games and reports have suggested he wants out via trade. That kind of standoff is a lot more than a side story. It’s the thing keeping the pressure high in Hockeytown even after locking up one of the team’s top scorers.
“Simon still remains a priority for us,” Horcoff said. “Nothing’s changed on our part or my part. . . we’re working, very, very diligently to sign him.
He’s part of our future. We’ve spent a lot of time with Simon, developing him.
I think he’s a big part of our core moving forward.”
Horcoff was even firmer when asked about the possibility of moving the 6-foot-6 defenseman, who skated on Detroit’s top pairing with Moritz Seider last season.
“I have zero interest in trading Simon Edvinsson,” Horcoff said. “. . .
He’s a player we value here, and I know everyone in the locker room does as well. So (a trade) is not something I am entertaining.”
There’s not much runway left. The Red Wings have to get Edvinsson signed by Dec. 1 at 5 p.m., or he won’t be eligible to play in the NHL this season.
The money range hasn’t been made public, but the expectation coming into the season was that Edvinsson would land somewhere around $9 million to $10 million per year. The Red Wings, according to reports, had initially leaned toward a shorter-term arrangement.
If that was the thinking at one point, Horcoff made clear the team is not boxing itself in now.
“We’re open to anything,” Horcoff said. “I think the details of it, we’ll still keep to ourselves.
But again, when you’re trying to sign a player, you have to be open-minded to all kinds of options. We certainly are.”
The Edvinsson situation has only added to a summer that already felt rough around the edges for Detroit. Dylan Larkin asked for a trade, the front office changed, and now there’s the unresolved contract mess with Edvinsson. The result is a team that, at least from the outside, looks unsettled.
DeBrincat’s new deal, though, shows there is still a pull here for the right player. The Michigan native made it clear during negotiations that he wanted to stay with the Red Wings if they were willing to pay fair market value.
With three 40-goal seasons on his resume, DeBrincat measured up closely with Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor and Dallas’s Jason Robertson, both of whom are earning $12 million per season. In that light, the $13 million average seemed to fit.
“It was never really a question,” DeBrincat said. “I wanted to be here. The money’s not everything.”
He also made it plain that the chance to squeeze out a bigger deal next summer wasn’t what he wanted.
“What’s the extra (money) going to do?” DeBrincat said.
“I knew this was the spot I wanted to be. I’m a Red Wing at heart, and that’s why I wanted to do it and get it done as quick as possible.”
No, no, it was. It was never, you know, really question I wanted to be here.
You know, the money’s not everything. You know, obviously it’s nice, but at the same time, you know, what’s the extra bit gonna do?
And, you know, I knew this was the spot I wanted to be. You know, I’m a Red Wing at heart, and that’s where I wanted to do and get it done as quick as possible.
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The shot margin was part of the story, too, with New Jersey testing Detroit more often over the course of the game. Even so, the Red Wings left the building knowing they had stumbled onto a line that created real problems for the Devils, the kind of combination that can change how opponents have to defend them if it keeps showing up. [Read more 🡒]