You wouldn’t expect a team that finished 16 points out of a playoff spot to have the highest payroll in the NHL, but that’s where the Detroit Red Wings rank, according to capfriendly.com.
The Red Wings might be slightly over the $75 million cap before the start of the regular season after Andreas Athanasiou is signed. Cap relief from long-term injured reserve could buy them some time, but they might eventually need to trade or waive a player to get cap compliant.
How did they get in this predicament? They signed several players to big money, long-term contracts, players who haven’t performed as expected, going back to Gustav Nyquist and Justin Abdelkader in 2015 to Danny DeKeyser and Darren Helm in 2016.