Steve Yzerman reveals why Johnny Gaudreau 'wasn't a priority' in free agency.
The Red Wings GM shares his insight.
Coming into the National Hockey League's free agency period for this year, there was a widely held belief that if former Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau was to hit the open market, he would be one of the most sought after commodities on the market. While you could certainly argue that this was indeed the case given the contract he would eventually sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets, a 7 year deal with an average annual value and salary cap hit of $9.75 million per season, there are reports coming out that appear to indicate Gaudreau may not have been as hot a commodity as it may have seemed.
The latest on this topic comes directly from none other than highly respected Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman. Recently, during a radio interview on the Stoney & Jansen Show, Yzerman would reveal that, in spite of the fact the Red Wings were repeatedly rumored to be in the mix for Gaudreau, they were never really in on the highly talented winger.
"No, not really," said Yzerman when asked if he considered signing Gaudreau.
The NHL legend would go on to explain that, while he believes Gaudreau is a very talented player, the 28 year old forward didn't really fit the team's organizational depth.
"Obviously we’re following what’s happening around the league and who might become free or not, but if you look at our lineup and our roster, we have a lot of wingers, a lot of left-hand-shot wingers," said Yzerman as per 97.1 The Ticket. "An excellent hockey player obviously, but it wasn’t a priority for us in tying up that much money and term," Yzerman said. "We have a lot of left-shot wingers, different than him obviously, but just wasn’t really a priority for us at this time."
While that certainly makes sense on the surface, couldn't you simply move one or more of those wingers if you felt that a truly exceptional talent was available on the open market?
It would appear though that Gaudreau was never on Yzerman's radar in any serious fashion and instead the Red Wings GM used his available cap space to make a number of smaller moves, bolstering several positions on his roster with the additions of players like Andrew Copp, Ben Chiarot, David Perron, Dominik Kubalik and Olli Maatta, rather than just one.
