Confirmed Signing with Link: [DET] Wings re-sign Jimmy Howard (1 year, $4M AAV + $1.1M in performance bonuses)

[HawkeyTalkMan]

Howard will be 35 next week. For CBA purposes, 35+ contracts are determined by a player's age not when they sign the deal but how they old they are on June 30th of the summer immediately preceding the season when the contract kicks in. (This little caveat is what sent the Pronger deal to hell.) Therefore, any deal he signed for next year would've been a 35+ contract.

When it comes to these 35-or-older contracts, players can only receive performance bonuses if they sign a one year deal. More than one year? Can't incorporate performance bonuses. Moreover, as most know, they can't be bought out for the sake of cap relief. You can buy out a player to terminate his contract but it won't remove his cap hit.

Because of that, I'm thinking he/his agent anticipated that he'd have a tough time getting a multi-year deal with a fully guaranteed salary from a different team that was for much more than the $5.1M he could potentially make with Detroit. And since he didn't want to leave Detroit, he probably didn't see the point in taking that risk.



This is a 35+ contract. The age at signing isn't what matters - it's how old the player is on the June 30th before the year the contract kicks in. Howard will be 35 in a week.



If anything, this deal goes against Holland's loyalty obsession. Says more about Howard's loyalty, IMO. Whether ownership forced him to or he finally came to his senses on his own, he started changing his ways around the 2017 trade deadline (although the real kicker was the Tatar trade). If it were a true Holland-style contract, then Howard would either be a (barely) walking corpse a la Dan Cleary or this deal would be 3x longer.



Detroit signing a known commodity to a no-risk one-year deal isn't a testament to anything other than the modest expectations in place for the team next season.



Howard has been at or above a .920 save percentage for the majority of the season. But you're right - good is relative, and what Howard has done this year is very good relative to the team he plays behind.

Don't disagree.

I think it was just more alarming from the HSJ article that they were both on board that pending no drop off in play, they are both planning on multiple one year deals, which just signals Detroit sees no internal signs of growth from the net in the next few years.

Next year, in a vacuum, this deal makes complete sense. Just the rest of it was kind of surprising to hear

 

[WingsMJN2965]

I'll call this a stupid move.

For starters, Howard's not been good at all this season, or the last. He's a has-been. Second, Red Wings are in a cap crunch. They're supposed to avoid spending a lot of money. They need to save where they can. Third, even if Howard ends up doing well, that hurts the tank. They'd be much better off banking on a younger, cheaper goalie. Even if they fail, that at least helps the tank and saves some money.

Loss-loss-loss for me.

Howard is literally the only reason we weren't the worst team in the league last year, and one of two reasons this year.

Oh, and about that cap crunch...

Larkin - $6.1M
Nielsen - $5.25M
Abdelkader - $4.25M
Helm - $3.85M
Mantha - $3.3M
Athanasiou - $3M
Glendening - $1.8M
Bertuzzi - $1.4M
Zadina - $925K
Rasmussen - $894K
Svechnikov - $863K

Green - $5.375M
DeKeyser - $5M
Ericsson - $4.25M
Daley - $3.166M
Bowey - $1M
Cholowski - $894K
Hronek - $714K

Howard - $4M
Bernier - $3M

Including Weiss and Ouellet's buyouts and Zetterberg and Franzen's contracts, that puts Detroit at just under $71M in cap spent for 11 forwards, 7 defenders, and 2 goalies...

So essentially they have $12M in spending space, and another $8.3M in leeway with Zetterberg and Franzen's LTIR.

Where's that cap crunch again?

 

[Seanaconda]

Honestly though, where is there a starting goalie market for Howard if he left Detroit anyway?

Ottawa for sure but who wants to be a part of that tire fire. Doubt Carolina looks to sign a 35 year old Howard. Edmonton can't really afford to go near $10 mil in goalies

Probably Jersey , maybe the flames or flyers as 1b for their young goalies . Sharks ? Colorado ? Columbus ? Idk it seems like a bunch of teams could use a goalie tbh .

I assume lehner will re sign so other than Bob there aren't many good goalies hitting ufa . And it seems like bob is going to Florida anyways . I guess varlamov if he doesn't sign but he's always injured so he's a 1a/b guy

 

[The Red Line]

I'll call this a stupid move.

For starters, Howard's not been good at all this season, or the last. He's a has-been. Second, Red Wings are in a cap crunch. They're supposed to avoid spending a lot of money. They need to save where they can. Third, even if Howard ends up doing well, that hurts the tank. They'd be much better off banking on a younger, cheaper goalie. Even if they fail, that at least helps the tank and saves some money.

Loss-loss-loss for me.

Wow this is an unbelievably ignorant post.

First of all, Howard has been excellent this season and while he wasn’t the best player on the wings he was still selected for the All Star game...

So you lost 100% credibility there. Then you go on to say they’re in a cap crunch, which they aren’t at all, even though it’s been explained like a billion times on this site how their cap situation is fine, there are also dozens of websites you can use to look this up before humiliating yourself with posts like the one above.

Essentially every single thing you posted was completely incorrect. Congratulations.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Its not a terrible move but why not wait until FA?

Not like 35 yr old Jimmy Howard will be hot commodity and they could have seen how FA shook out

Because the UFA goalie market takes a nosedive after Bobrovsky and Varlamov, and I have no interest in Detroit adding Bobo for $9M - $10M per.

 

[Whalers Fan]

I'll call this a stupid move.

For starters, Howard's not been good at all this season, or the last. He's a has-been. Second, Red Wings are in a cap crunch. They're supposed to avoid spending a lot of money. They need to save where they can. Third, even if Howard ends up doing well, that hurts the tank. They'd be much better off banking on a younger, cheaper goalie. Even if they fail, that at least helps the tank and saves some money.

Loss-loss-loss for me.

I'm not a Wings fan, but cannot see how this is a bad move. It's a one year deal that does not cause any cap issues. Detroit needs a goalie, and this contract does not commit them to anything long term if something better does come along next offseason.

 

[Ezekial]

Yeah we're going to have more and more cap space but eventually we'll have to re-sign Mantha, Larkin, Ras and probably Zadina

There isn't a current contract on the team that extends past Larkin. The "moving cap" is natural expiring of contracts.
Before AA and Mantha need to resign Daley, Green, and Big E will have just come off the books. We'll be fine, hopefully there will be a free buyout for Abby after the cba.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

Howard is literally the only reason we weren't the worst team in the league last year, and one of two reasons this year.

Oh, and about that cap crunch...

Larkin - $6.1M
Nielsen - $5.25M
Abdelkader - $4.25M
Helm - $3.85M
Mantha - $3.3M
Athanasiou - $3M
Glendening - $1.8M
Bertuzzi - $1.4M
Zadina - $925K
Rasmussen - $894K
Svechnikov - $863K

Green - $5.375M
DeKeyser - $5M
Ericsson - $4.25M
Daley - $3.166M
Bowey - $1M
Cholowski - $894K
Hronek - $714K

Howard - $4M
Bernier - $3M

Including Weiss and Ouellet's buyouts and Zetterberg and Franzen's contracts, that puts Detroit at just under $71M in cap spent for 11 forwards, 7 defenders, and 2 goalies...

So essentially they have $12M in spending space, and another $8.3M in leeway with Zetterberg and Franzen's LTIR.

Where's that cap crunch again?

Thanks for this!

It'll definitely be nice to have more and more cap space especially if we don't use much and Stevie comes in

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

There isn't a current contract on the team that extends past Larkin. The "moving cap" is natural expiring of contracts.
Before AA and Mantha need to resign Daley, Green, and Big E will have just come off the books. We'll be fine, hopefully there will be a free buyout for Abby after the cba.

I wouldn't mind resigning Green for 2 years or 3 at the most especially if Daley, E and Kronwall all retire.

We just might have a buyout after the CBA but do you think they'll use it on Gator? We know how Detroit treat their own

 

[Ezekial]

I wouldn't mind resigning Green for 2 years or 3 at the most especially if Daley, E and Kronwall all retire.

We just might have a buyout after the CBA but do you think they'll use it on Gator? We know how Detroit treat their own

Abby sucks dicks. He's seen his ice time decrease 3 minutes a game since he signed the contract and he saw a minute less per game than last year. They'll buy out their worst contract if given the chance, that's Justin Abdelkader. Most likely the guy who signed his contract won't be the one buying him out at that point.

If we sign green to a new deal before the expansion we will be required to protect one of him and DDK (along with the obvious 2, Hronek and Cholowski) meaning Seattle could take whichever we expose (I think by expansion time we will expose Dekeyser and he will be picked over our forward options). I'd rather go after a different, better D man and protect him.

 

[mouser]

Howard will be 35 next week. For CBA purposes, 35+ contracts are determined by a player's age not when they sign the deal but how they old they are on June 30th of the summer immediately preceding the season when the contract kicks in. (This little caveat is what sent the Pronger deal to hell.) Therefore, any deal he signed for next year would've been a 35+ contract.

When it comes to these 35-or-older contracts, players can only receive performance bonuses if they sign a one year deal. More than one year? Can't incorporate performance bonuses. Moreover, as most know, they can't be bought out for the sake of cap relief. You can buy out a player to terminate his contract but it won't remove his cap hit.

Because of that, I'm thinking he/his agent anticipated that he'd have a tough time getting a multi-year deal with a fully guaranteed salary from a different team that was for much more than the $5.1M he could potentially make with Detroit. And since he didn't want to leave Detroit, he probably didn't see the point in taking that risk.


This is a 35+ contract. The age at signing isn't what matters - it's how old the player is on the June 30th before the year the contract kicks in. Howard will be 35 in a week.

It's a matter of semantics. It's a 35+ contract allowing Howard to have performance bonuses. However the contract is not subject to the age 35+ rules that the cap hit doesn't disappear as it's not a multi-year contract. When folks discuss a "35+ contract" they're usually referring to the later.

 

[LeonDraisaitl]

Those saying this doesn’t make sense are out of it concerning how hard it is to get a reliable starter like Howard. Outside of him obviously staying in Detroit I think it’s a real steal. Tell me though Detroit fans if you would prefer a 1 year 4 million or a 3 year 3.5 million?

 

[ZDH]

1 year

 

[Michel Beauchamp]

Might as well re-sign Howard for a year or two. Not like there's much in the pipeline or free agent market to replace him.

Two years ?

No. They probably wanted to avoid the possible burden of a 35+ contract.

 

[Michel Beauchamp]

This is a 35+ contract. The age at signing isn't what matters - it's how old the player is on the June 30th before the year the contract kicks in. Howard will be 35 in a week.

Nope.

A "35+" contract has to be a multi-year contract.

A 40-year-old player signing a 1-year contract is not on a "35+" contract.

 

[mouser]

Two years ?

No. They probably wanted to avoid the possible burden of a 35+ contract.

It’s Ken Holland and the Wings. Ken’s never been frightened of a possible anchor contract with term. Unless it comes to guys like Nyqvist and Tatar.

Btw, if you look up a few posts I commented on the age 35+ semantics. It’s not a CBA defined term, and there are a couple places in the CBA where age 35 matters. We tend to use the term “age 35+ contract” to describe one aspect of the CBA, but “age 35+” is not an all-inclusive CBA term. Not that different from describing cap relief as LTIR, when LTIR and cap relief from the LTIR Exception are two different CBA definitions.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Thanks for this!

It'll definitely be nice to have more and more cap space especially if we don't use much and Stevie comes in

I'm not sure about when Yzerman's contract with Tampa actually ends, so dunno if he'd even be able to step in as GM by July 1st, if that's what happens.

So, if Ken Holland is still in charge then, it wouldn't surprise me to see us go for Karlsson, strike out, and end up overpaying Gardiner.

 

[Flukeshot]

Good deal for both sides.

 

[RealisticLeaf55]

Am I the only one who is okay with siging Howard? Safe contract for a decent goalie who at the very least is great for the locker room. If I were to chastise this signing I would have to do so for Marleau, which by HFBoards standards is the worst contract in this history of pen and paper, yet I wouldn't change that signing for the world.

Good on Detroit. Rooting for their rebuild. I miss our rivalry, one based on skill, respect, and a desire to win.

 

[3074326]

I also don't understand how this signing is controversial at all. Howard has had a good year, he's been there forever, it's literally a one year deal and the cap hit isn't even high. This is like the opposite of a controversial signing.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

Am I the only one who is okay with siging Howard? Safe contract for a decent goalie who at the very least is great for the locker room. If I were to chastise this signing I would have to do so for Marleau, which by HFBoards standards is the worst contract in this history of pen and paper, yet I wouldn't change that signing for the world.

Good on Detroit. Rooting for their rebuild. I miss our rivalry, one based on skill, respect, and a desire to win.

Yes, you're literally the only one...

Except most Detroit fans in this thread?