Confirmed Signing with Link: [DET] F JT Compher signs with the Red Wings (5 years, $5.1M AAV)

[Seider and Donuts]

The ones not thinking logically are the Wings fans twisting themselves into pretzels to justify this contract.

Every other fanbase thinks it's bad. They are correct.

Plenty of people have said it sucks.

You're just the one talking yourself into thinking it means jack shit lol.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Name all the 3Cs carrying a cap hit of $5 million. Besides Compher.

Name all the 3Cs in the league that scored 50+ points last season and are making much less than 5 million?
Name all 3Cs in the league that played 20+ minutes per game last season and took 1500+ faceoffs?

You realize...the cap goes up for every team. It's not some magic get-out-of-jail free card for just Detroit. There's no unique advantage for Detroit. It's a hilarious excuse I hear any time a bad contract is signed. Like, yeah, it's still a bad contract!

There's no unique advantage but:

- Detroit has and will have more ELCs and RFA players than most teams, simply because they're young and coming out of a rebuild
- For better or for worse, Detroit has no superstar players commanding 10+ mil in salary, so they can afford to spend a little more on depth
- Detroit's got only 3 players signed beyond 2025-26, that's if not unique at least rare. Talking about it as if they've locked themselves into a box with their cap situation couldn't be further from the truth.

Pretty much every guy you've listed is a 2C or was at the point they earned their contract.

What role did Compher play for Colorado last season?

The entire point here is that comparable guys (middle 6 centers) make that type of money. The stubborn idea that there's a huge divide between "top 6" and "bottom 6" is what makes the discussion impossible. Middle-6 exists as a label to describe these types of players - who may fill a 2C role at times, a 3C role at times, guys that aren't legit top 6 players but are good enough to handle it from time to time. Guys that make around 5 mil a year.

 

[BluesyShoes]

Vincent Trocheck $5.6 x 7
Ryan Strome $5.0 x 5
Philip Danault $5.5 x 6
Zach Hyman $5.5 x 7
Blake Coleman $4.9 x 6
Mikael Granlund $5.0 x 4
Alex Wennberg $4.5 x 3
Andrew Copp $5.6 x 5

Those are the comparable UFA center signings in the $5M ballpark of the last 3 years of free agency.

 

[Ezekial]

Vincent Trocheck $5.6 x 7
Ryan Strome $5.0 x 5
Philip Danault $5.5 x 6
Zach Hyman $5.5 x 7
Blake Coleman $4.9 x 6
Mikael Granlund $5.0 x 4
Alex Wennberg $4.5 x 3
Andrew Copp $5.6 x 5

Those are the comparable UFA center signings in the $5M ballpark of the last 3 years of free agency.

Outside of a couple outliers(glad we didn't commit 7 to anyone), they seem pretty comparable. bunch of meh on that list.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

A lot of money for a 4th liner.

 

[Ezekial]

A lot of money for a 4th liner.

He had a lot of points for a 4th liner last year too.

It's almost like calling him a 4th liner is as disingenuous as calling him a 50 point player.

 

[Petes2424]

Yeah. Let him go elsewhere.

He's a useful player. A good 3C. He's not making 3C money.

Yzerman's "strategy" of signing a bunch of mid UFAs to market value didn't work out so well. So apparently the plan is to double down on more mid players that won't move the needle.


This basically just sounds like the "plan" is to be explicitly mediocre until such unspecified time they suddenly become good.

Let’s see…..

Fischer replaces Erne
Compher replaces Suter
Ghost replaces Oesterle
Holl replaces Hagg
Reimer replaces Neds
Lyon replaces Hellberg
Sprong replaces Chiasson

Those are significant upgrades. Who cares if they overpaid on a couple of guys. That’s what happens when you have to go the UFA route. That’s no secret. They gave up no assets for these players and will likely gain assets for a couple at the deadline. Young players will now have to earn their spots. The way it’s supposed to be.

Just because they didn’t do it the way you would have, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I wouldn’t have given Killorn or O’Reilly those crazy deals. Compher will absolutely outperform O’Reilly contractually. That stint in TO wasn’t worth 4 years. He was not the same player most of the season. The Killorn contract was just nuts.

The summer isn’t over either. They clearly have significantly upgraded that roster. This is what you have to do when the cupboard was completely empty and you don’t win lotteries. The system is now loaded but their sub 22 players. As those players start integrating in, they’ll have a supporting cast.

 

[BHD]

What is Compher actually worth per season? 3.5 tops, right?

 

[snipes]

Massive overpay

 

[Voight]

This is like dejavu from last summer when Copp got almost the same deal.

 

[Voight]

Chiarot. Holl. Compher. Copp.

Omfg Stevie Y. Sucks now.

BriseBois was always the brain behind Tampa's success it seems.

Dont forget Yzerman gave Matt Carle $33million/6 years & Ryan Callahan $34.8million/6 years.

 

[BSHH]

Might be a bit high but he's worth about 4.5 million. So we're talking like a 500k overpayment? It's free agency players are going to get over paid. He's a versatile and useful player.

At least for me, the term is even more of an abomination: The Red Wings drafted Danielson in addition to Kasper, who both project as high-floor defensive valuable 3C with ideally 2C upside. Copp is a similar type and still under contract for three years (or is it even more?). Therefore I fear that Compher will be completely expendable after two years, even if he is able to replicate last year's outlier season - a feat Copp couldn't accomplish after being signed by the Red Wings, by the way.

The signing may not be as horrible as some here portend it to be. But if (and that's a big if already) Detroit makes any progress and sends out more successful teams this and next year, they will need high-end players instead of the next highly-compensated third rounder.

Gruß,
BSHH

 

[bleedgreen]

Lots of haters out there. This contract doesn’t hurt the Wings, and won’t hurt them moving forward. He’s a solid player, it’s not a big overpayment and if it’s a mild overpayment it won’t be for long. They have the space and aren’t being boxed in by any of these contracts they’ve signed over the last two years. Just buying time and supporting the youngsters until they can take over.

 

[Pavels Dog]

At least for me, the term is even more of an abomination: The Red Wings drafted Danielson in addition to Kasper, who both project as high-floor defensive valuable 3C with ideally 2C upside. Copp is a similar type and still under contract for three years (or is it even more?). Therefore I fear that Compher will be completely expendable after two years, even if he is able to replicate last year's outlier season - a feat Copp couldn't accomplish after being signed by the Red Wings, by the way.

It's common for young centers to start as wing in the NHL, and when Kasper/Danielson move into the middle Compher/Copp just move to wing which they are used to playing.

 

[Turbonium]

Hopefully he sends Mikko a thank you card.

 

[appiepi]

Let’s see…..

Fischer replaces Erne
Compher replaces Suter
Ghost replaces Oesterle
Holl replaces Hagg
Reimer replaces Neds
Lyon replaces Hellberg
Sprong replaces Chiasson

Those are significant upgrades. Who cares if they overpaid on a couple of guys. That’s what happens when you have to go the UFA route. That’s no secret. They gave up no assets for these players and will likely gain assets for a couple at the deadline. Young players will now have to earn their spots. The way it’s supposed to be.

Just because they didn’t do it the way you would have, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I wouldn’t have given Killorn or O’Reilly those crazy deals. Compher will absolutely outperform O’Reilly contractually. That stint in TO wasn’t worth 4 years. He was not the same player most of the season. The Killorn contract was just nuts.

The summer isn’t over either. They clearly have significantly upgraded that roster. This is what you have to do when the cupboard was completely empty and you don’t win lotteries. The system is now loaded but their sub 22 players. As those players start integrating in, they’ll have a supporting cast.

Who is replacing Bertuzzi and Hronek?

This team is worse than last years team. And honestly, this team is pretty far from being ready to compete in the playoffs amyway. They should hope for another high pick Next draft.

 

[MessierII]

Are they expecting him to be a 2C? That’s steep for a guy like him.

 

[norrisnick]

Are they expecting him to be a 2C? That’s steep for a guy like him.

He signed for less than Copp, so I imagine it's 3C for Compher.

 

[DatsDeking]

Who is replacing Bertuzzi and Hronek?

This team is worse than last years team. And honestly, this team is pretty far from being ready to compete in the playoffs amyway. They should hope for another high pick Next draft.

Gostisbehere is the Hronek replacement. Possibly even an improvement. No solid replacement for Bert but Bert didn’t seem to fit in the long term plans. We’ve added some grit up and down the lineup. Bert’s greasy goals will be missed though.

 

[Rubi]

Am I missing something? Is Compher a better player than I thought he was?

Someone on my home board said $5m is the new normal for a 3rd liner. Maybe it is.

 

[Ezekial]

Who is replacing Bertuzzi and Hronek?

This team is worse than last years team. And honestly, this team is pretty far from being ready to compete in the playoffs amyway. They should hope for another high pick Next draft.

I'm sure they won't have trouble replacing his 4 goals from last year.


Bertuzzi wasn't a positive factor on the Wings last year, maybe if he were coming off his 30+32 season playing most of the games you'd have an argument, but Bert and Vrana didn't really contribute to our team last year.

 

[appiepi]

Gostisbehere is the Hronek replacement. Possibly even an improvement. No solid replacement for Bert but Bert didn’t seem to fit in the long term plans. We’ve added some grit up and down the lineup. Bert’s greasy goals will be missed though.

Gost I guess would be a stopgap replacement. I dont understand how Compher fits into our plans and Bertuzzi does not. Id much rather have Bertuzzi at even 7.5m × 6 years than Compher on this contract even if he only plays 50/60 games a year. At least he would provide some scoring, grit, and heart, something this team needs dearly. Sorry, i'm not meaning to argue with you. I'm just baffled and am venting. We did add some grit up down the lineup so I am happy there.

 

[gritdash60]

It's a shit contract alright, now we have a 2C and 5 4C's. Im not here to defend Yzerman but people should realise that in his eyes Wings are not competing yet but building towards it. If it should be done like this or just blowing shit up and tanking for multiple 1-3 picks is something everyone will have their opinion on.

Edit: i hate this contract, but i like Yzerman's way of doing things (kind of). He doesn't want to go for the 1st overall by sucking all year every year, instead looks to build a team where the upcoming players don't get destroyed every night. The problem is, Wings dont have any high end players atm or in the future in forwards. Seider is already a player that would be in a Norris talks soon if he played for a good team, and Edvinsson might be good, but the forwards suck.

 

[DatsDeking]

Gost I guess would be a stopgap replacement. I dont understand how Compher fits into our plans and Bertuzzi does not. Id much rather have Bertuzzi at even 7.5m × 6 years than Compher on this contract even if he only plays 50/60 games a year. At least he would provide some scoring, grit, and heart, something this team needs dearly. Sorry, i'm not meaning to argue with you. I'm just baffled and am venting. We did add some grit up down the lineup so I am happy there.

All good, man. The signings feel random, I get you. I’m hoping we land ADB or some other type of forward/load up next year via FA or trades but we’ll see.

Certainly feels like we’ve got a few years before we push for the playoffs.

 

[Petes2424]

Who is replacing Bertuzzi and Hronek?

This team is worse than last years team. And honestly, this team is pretty far from being ready to compete in the playoffs amyway. They should hope for another high pick Next draft.

Because Bertuzzi produced so much last year?? He barely played. Hronek also wrote his ticket out of town after those games in Ottawa. He was pushed around and ultimately hurt. On the surface, they’re a much better team, but we won’t know until they play the games.