Red Wings Sign Mazur to Two-Year Deal

Just days after not giving him a qualifying offer, the Detroit Red Wings announced the signing of forward Carter Mazur to a two-year deal.

MORE MAZUR‼️

The #RedWings have signed Carter Mazur to a two-year contract with an AAV of $875,000. pic.twitter.com/YH4Y7YU7sk

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 1, 2026

The deal carries a salary cap hit of $875,000.

Mazur was briefly an unrestricted free agent after Detroit did not extend a qualifying offer to him, thus forfeiting his restricted free agent rights. His qualifying offer would have been $874,125.

We’ve seen this kind of deal in the past, so it’s not entirely surprising to see Mazur signed after not getting a qualifying offer. There seems to be a bit of handshake agreement in place, some “we know we’re close on a deal so we’re not going to bother with the qualifying offer and just move on to the actual contract” kind of thing. It happened with Gustav Lindstrom in 2023, for example.

There were a lot of good reasons given for not bringing Mazur back when his lack of qualifying offer was announced. He has a horrible time staying healthy, for example. But with an extremely bury-able contract, I’d rather see him get a shot in Detroit than have him walk for nothing, so I like this deal.