Red Wings Bring Back Gagner on One Year Deal

The Detroit Red Wings re-signed center Sam Gagner to a one year deal on Saturday.

The #RedWings today signed center Sam Gagner to a one-year contract extension. pic.twitter.com/p6UylW071Y

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 26, 2020

The deal is reportedly worth $850,000 because of course financial terms were not officially announced.

I love this deal if only for the dollar amount.  Do I want a 31-year-old taking away spots from the kids in the Wings’ system?  No.  But at $850,000, Gagner can be buried in Grand Rapids (or whatever the farm system looks like whenever the next season happens) if Michael Rasmussen or Joe Veleno or whoever wins a roster spot (or if Frans Nielsen suddenly returns to form somehow).  If not, he slots in cheaply and can maybe be flipped for a fifth-rounder at the trade deadline.

Random thought: As the 2020 offseason hasn’t started yet, had Gagner’s previous contract actually expired?  That’s usually how I differentiate between someone re-signing (signing with Detroit after their contract expired, having spent time as a free agent) or signing a contract extension (new contract with more years ready to kick in after the expiration of their existing deal, avoiding free agency).

The Wings also announced the signing of Griffins forward Turner Elson to a one year deal reportedly worth $725,000 at the NHL level and $115,000 in the AHL.

That one’s slightly interesting because Elson was making $700,000 at the NHL level under his previous two year deal (not that he actually played any NHL games under that contract) but $100,000 for the first year and $175,000 for the second year in the AHL.  The original deal was signed in February of 2019 so that first year would have been pro-rated but, however you slice it, he just signed for an NHL raise and an AHL pay cut.