By AJ Petronzi
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In Play! is going to take some time this summer to offer suggestions on how to improve the Detroit Red Wings for 2012-2013. We’ll start our finger pointing with Jiri Hudler.
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In Play on Facebook
In Play! is going to take some time this summer to offer suggestions on how to improve the Detroit Red Wings for 2012-2013. We’ll start our finger pointing with Jiri Hudler.
Should Hudler be signed as an unrestricted free agent and
become part of Detroit’s core group of players, or should Hudler be packaged up
and shipped out as the next former
Red Wing.
Hudler had a great season in 2011-2012. He showed he deserved the three million
dollars he was awarded by the arbitrator in the summer of 2009 by finishing
with 25 goals and 25 assists and also being one of only two Wings players to
score two goals in five playoff games. However, the Wings’ wanted him to score
70 points, and he provided only 50. As a goal scorer, Hudler showed up by
finishing second on the team in goals, following only Johan Franzen (he only
had four less goals and six less points than Franzen, despite making 2.25
million less). His two goals on the power play were a huge disappointment and
his only career highs were in penalty minutes and shooting percentage.
Hudler, unfortunately, likes to pass the puck instead of
shoot it. Detroit is looking for someone who can shoot the puck to round out
their top six forwards. Already signed for next season are Pavel Datsyuk,
Henrik Zetterberg and Valtteri Filppula; all passers and all centers (which is
Hudler’s natural position despite his whole career in Detroit as a wing). It
doesn’t make sense to have four passers and centers in your top six forwards.
Hudler’s career season was 2008-2009, when we was on the left wing opposite of
shooter Marian Hossa and centered by fellow passer Filppula. Hudler flourishes
next to a shooter, but Detroit would need to liquidate Datsyuk, Zetterberg or
Filppula in order to bring a shooting in for Hudler. Not a likely scenario.
One scenario that could work for Detroit is trading Hudler’s
negotiating rights at the NHL Draft for the negotiating rights of another
pending UFA. One player that fits Detroit’s needs is Alexander Semin. Semin put
up virtually equal numbers as Hudler this season, but earned 6.7 million. He’s
going to have to accept a pay cut unless he wants to play in Russia as no team
is going to pay him that salary after his last two seasons (and it’s been made
pretty clear that Washington wouldn’t want Semin if he were to play for free).
Unlike Hudler, Semin is a shooter trapped on a team FULL of shooters. A good bargaining
tool for Semin is that in the three games he played during the World Hockey
Championship on a line with Pavel Datsyuk, he scored two goals and three
assists. He’s also the same age as Hudler, both skaters are 28.
If the Wings could get Semin for the bargain price of three
and a half to four million dollars, even if only for one or two seasons, it
would be worth the price of Jiri Hudler.
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