The Detroit Red Wings have been a team hopeful of a major turnaround in recent years, and while this young core have shown immense potential and gotten off to some great starts, they’re yet to break their Stanley Cup Playoffs drought with this group.
This off-season could either undo all of the building done by General Manager Steve Yzerman, or it could fast track their return to the post-season, and with captain Dylan Larkin already asking for a trade, the option that the Red Wings end up with will depend entirely on how that situation plays out. However, after trading Sebastian Cossa, there’s a chance that Detroit will make several more moves, and now, one of their young RFA’s is reportedly the target of the Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes.
Carolina Hurricanes Targeting RFA Simon Edvinsson
GettySimon Edvinsson of the Detroit Red Wings.
We’ve already seen one massive offer sheet this summer with the Flyers and Ducks superstar Leo Carlsson, and after Anaheim were threatened with another, it’s become clear that offer sheets could become the norm this summer. While the Detroit Red Wings don’t seem to be intent on handing one out, the team are clearly under threat of one, and according to Elliotte Friedman on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast, the Hurricanes are keeping a close eye on Simon Edvinsson as a possible offer sheet target.
“The other player I kind of heard in conjunction with them (Carolina) was Simon Edvinsson from the Red Wings… I kind of wondered if they were eyeing him up and down too,” Friedman said.
Once upon a time, offer sheets were a major threat from teams, but with so few of those threats being delivered on, there was never a true fear from rival teams that their restricted free agents would be targeted. Now though, with GM’s around the league getting aggressive, if the Hurricanes look to deal Alexander Nikishin, Edvinsson could be seen as a very solid replacement, and he could come cheap too if the offer sheet is at the right price.
Could the Hurricanes Offer Sheet Simon Edvinsson?
From the moment he arrived in the NHL, Edvinsson has shown immense potential, and over the past two seasons, he’s become a highly productive player on the Red Wings top pairing. In that time, Nikishin has tallied 16 goals and 56 points in 150 games played, and while he isn’t shaping up as a potential superstar, he’s certainly shown that he’s good enough to be a good player on a great team.
In Carolina, that’s exactly what Edvinsson could be, and while his role wouldn’t be as big, getting to play on a team that’s just won the Stanley Cup and could go back-to-back in 2027 would be a major career upgrade for the 23-year-old. On the other hand, Friedman has also reported that the Hurricanes could look to use offer sheets as a way to get another tradable asset, and while it’s unclear just what situation they would be targeting Edvinsson under, the fit is there, and if the Red Wings don’t lock him up, the Hurricanes could swoop and get a deal done via offer sheet.
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