Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond would like to lock themselves into the Red Wings' future, and Steve Yzerman is "certainly open to it." The question is two-fold: for how much and for how long?
"It’s not a big secret, I want to be a Red Wing," Seider said Thursday as the Red Wings cleaned out their lockers after coming agonizingly close to their first playoff berth in eight years. "And I think I'm confident enough (to say) that I could be a good asset for this organization, and that really matters for me. You can talk as long as you want about numbers and lengths and how long a contract should be, but if those two first parts fit well, then I’m pretty confident we’ll get something done."
Seider and Raymond both need new deals this offseason. The first two first-round picks of Yzerman's tenure in Detroit -- Seider sixth overall in 2019 and Raymond fourth overall in 2020 -- are set to be restricted free agent and are due significant raises from their entry-level contracts.
"I’ll leave that to my agents and the people around me helping me," Raymond said Thursday. "As far when a deal will get done, I don't know. What I do know is that I love this team, I love this city and I want to be here."
Seider, 23, is the Red Wings' best defenseman and hasn't missed a game in three NHL seasons. He plays major minutes against the opposition's top line every night. He is indispensable to the Wings' future. So is Raymond, 22, who led the team in scoring this season and took his game to new heights during Detroit's playoff push.
"He certainly showed, more so down the stretch, his game-breaking ability, scoring big goals, key goals. I don’t think that’s an aberration," Yzerman said. "I think he’s going to continue to do that."
And Seider?
"I think he’s a tremendous young player," Yzerman said. "We haven’t been a great team in his three years here, he’s been thrown in there and he shows up every game. He battles hard, he blocks shots, he gets hit, he makes plays. We’re asking him to do a lot and he’s got the metal toughness to weather it all, to one, get out there and play, and two, to be handle the minutes against top, top players."
Seider said he's excited to reach the point of working out his next contract with the Red Wings: "It's the first time we can actually do something like that. I get both sides. In the end, it’s a business. I’m confident to say I think I’ll be a Red Wing for next year, and that’s what matters most.
Raymond admitted the pressure of playing for his next deal weighed on him a bit at the start of the season, when he started slowly. He had 12 goals and 34 points in his first 45 games. But it "disappeared from my mind" as the Wings started playing bigger games in the second half. He had 19 goals and 38 points in his final 37 games, including 14 goals in the final 18 when his team needed him the most.
Asked if he thinks he made the negotiation tougher on the Wings with his surge down the stretch, Raymond said, "I don't know if I made it tougher or the other way (around)." That is, this is starting to feel like a pretty simple decision for Yzerman. Why wouldn't he sign Raymond long-term?
"He’s a fabulous, talented player with great hockey sense. He plays with a lot of courage and a lot of determination and I think his confidence has grown over the course of the season. He's an exciting player, obviously, and can do some really special things with the puck," Yzerman said.
The Red Wings essentially have two options with their two best players this side of Dylan Larkin, who signed an eight-year, $70 million deal with the club last season. They can lock them up for the next eight years with contracts that will almost certainly be worth at least $8 million per year, or they can delay a long-term commitment with a lower-cost contract at the risk of having to pay them even more a few years down the road.
A couple months ago, Raymond felt like a candidate for a bridge contract, a good young player who had yet to really play like a star. Now it might behoove Yzerman and the Wings to lock him up before he drives his value even higher.
"The term and the dollars gotta work for both parties," Yzerman said. "You have to pay a player enough that he’s willing to give you eight years (and delay unrestricted free agency), but also, it can be dangerous if you’re paying an extreme premium for potential. Because a lot of times it can be difficult.
"If you don’t have any cap issues or concerns, then you don’t worry about as much. But those deals make you have cap issues. Again, I’m certainly open to it, but the term and the dollar amount has gotta work for both parties and that can be a challenge."
There's risk in not locking in Seider, too. While he's yet to reproduce his offensive numbers as a rookie, he's eating some of the most difficult minutes in the NHL and looking more and more like a franchise defenseman. And as Seider said himself after finishing with 42 points for the second year in a row, "I think there’s a lot more to my game that’s going to be growing in the next few years."
We pause here to remind you that Seider has more points over his first three seasons than Victor Hedman had over his first four. Hedman has the fourth most points among NHL defensemen since. Seider plays a similar game, and could make similar strides in the years ahead. He can't imagine making them anywhere but in Detroit.
"It’s always a big dream for every player to be in a franchise for a long time," Seider said. "If that’s going to work out, that’s obviously great. But also, I don’t know. Either way, you just want to be here. If that’s multiple contracts, that’s fine with me, too. But obviously, I just want to be part of that team, of that locker room, I want to play in front of those fans and I think we’ll be alright."