1. Franzen was far better than Nyquist
2. Franzen was a 1/2 line winger on a stacked team
3. This is Nyquist best season
I am not against bringing him back, I just think that singing him to a reasonable deal.
It also depends what direction the team goes.
Counterpoints:
1. Franzen's contract was 11 years; Nyquist's will likely be only be around 5 (give or take a year on either side). The "dummy" years on Franzen's contract artificially lowered the AAV in the early years. In the first 5 years of Franzen's contract, he made $26 million in actual cash earnings ($5.2 AAV) - which is equivalent to a $7.6mm AAV today. If you were willing to give Nyquist 8 years (and I'm not saying they should), I bet the AAV would be much less than $6 million.
2. When Franzen signed his contract, he had never finished more than 38 points in a season prior to his big contract year in 2009 (when he finished with 59). So hardly different than Nyquist in that regard.
3. You can say that Franzen was better playoff performer than Nyquist, but Franzen actually signed his contract before the 2009 playoffs. So when he signed that contact, the Wings basically paid him on the basis of one good playoff run in 2008 (in his 2 other playoff appearances in 2006 and 2007, he only had 10 points in 24 games).
