panoo

Posted by George James Malik
June 27, 2007 06:50AM

As July 1st, some slightly strange NHL rumours are swirling around the Red Wings. I'd suggest that you take all of the following with a few grains of salt:

NHL.com's Larry Wigge suggests that the Red Wings may very well consider signing former Islanders centre Alexei Yashin (who was recently bought out by the Isles) to replace Robert Lang:

June 26, NHL.com: In Detroit, goalie Dominik Hasek still has not officially signed his new free-agent contract. But the deal is as good as done. Now, however, the six-year, $37.8 million deal that Philadelphia just gave to Kimmo Timonen may have raised the ante to be offered to Wings defenseman Mathieu Schneider, another free agent.

Meanwhile, the team is still in pursuit of a second-line center. The names of free agents Slava Kozlov and Alexei Yashin were being bandied about. But there will be a couple of other names entered into the bidding before the July 1 free-agent signing period -- and that's where the Red Wings can be expected to find their man.

Given that Yashin will earn $2.2 million for the next eight years from the Islanders could theoretically mean that he'd ask for less, but his work ethic has made Lang look like Kris Draper at times.

The news about former Red Wing Slava Kozlov? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Craig Custance has no clue where Kozzie's headed:

June 25, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Kozlov rumors have been all over the charts. One person I talked to said there's no way he signs with Atlanta. Someone else said Kozlov hopes to return to the Thrashers. The bottom line is that the Thrashers are on a budget, and still have a lot of roster spots to fill. If Kozlov can get, say $3.5 million per year on the open market, is that a price the Thrashers can pay with so many needs to be filled? I don't know. According to George Richards at the Miami Herald, the Florida Panthers will enter the Kozlov sweepstakes if he hits the open market.

Two writers from the province of Alberta insist that the Red Wings are keen on former Edmonton Oiler Ryan Smyth, starting with the Globe and Mail's Eric Duhatschek, who doesn't toss rumours around lightly:

June 27, Globe and Mail: The Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings will likely make significant plays for Smyth, who is not expected to re-sign with the New York Islanders unless offered some sort of Alexei Yashin long-term, over-the-top contract (not impossible given their previous track record).

How could this happen when the Wings only have somewhere between $10-12 million before they hit their self-imposed cap limit? The same way the Flyers will exceed the cap this year:

When the Flyers negotiated that landmark six-year, $37.8-million (all figures U.S.) with [Kimmo] Timonen last week, they front-loaded the deal, meaning he will earn considerably more in the early years of the contract and less down the road.

Timonen's contract carries an annual salary-cap charge of $6.3-million, but his salary for the 2007-08 season -- the actual dollars in his pocket -- comes in at $8-million. Only New York Rangers winger Jaromir Jagr, operating under terms of the prelockout, rolled-back contract he signed with the Washington Capitals, earns more at $8.3-million.

The Flyers structured the Timonen deal that way, partly as a means of circumventing the NHL salary cap. In terms of dollars paid out to players (as opposed to their salary-cap "value"), the Flyers' payroll could be well above the expected 2007-08 salary cap of $48-million to $50-million, depending upon how they structure their contracts between now and September.

The Edmonton Journal's Jim Matheson insists that Detroit is the favourite to land Smyth's services:

June 27, Edmonton Journal: The Detroit Red Wings, with $31.1 million committed in salary for next year, still seems the best bet to sign Smyth.

But they might not give him six years. The Wings have some serious money juggling to work through, however, before they can consider Smyth.

Matheson believes that Ken Holland's dropped a big hint regarding the Wings' likelihood of re-signing Mathieu Schneider and Danny Markov:

FULL STORY