Report: Red Wings increase offer to Athanasiou

According to a report from The Athletic’s Craig Custance, the Detroit Red Wings have upped their contract offer to restricted free-agent Andreas Athanasiou. 

While the team’s two year offer remains at $1.9 million per season, Wings GM Ken Holland has apparently sweetened his one year deal of $1.25 million. No word yet on what the actual offer is, but here’s the straight goods from Custance himself:

On Monday, the Red Wings had a conference call with Athanasiou and his agent Darren Ferris that included multiple people from the organization, expressing exactly what his role would be and articulating why the two-year offer is where it currently is.

They’ve also sweetened the one-year offer a tad from the $1.25 million that was already on the table in an attempt to get him into the mix in the short term.

Is this enough to get the kid into the lineup? Each day he sits out he’s leaving upwards of $10,000 on the table. Interestingly enough, Custance reports that the Wings have also had multiple trade offers for the 23-year-old speedster. Of course, the asking price is high from Holland though, and so far, they haven’t really considered the trade route for Athanasiou.

Whatever happens, you can’t blame the Wings or Holland for not trying to get a deal done. The ball appears to be in Athanasiou’s court, what he decides to do from this point forward is up to him.