Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
The Detroit Red Wings locked up their final restricted free agent last Friday, signing forward Tomas Jurco to a two-year contract worth $900,000 per season. The deal comes after several sources reported that the two parties weren’t even close to reaching an agreement.
While it’s almost always a net positive to bring back your own talent, I’m not sure if that is the case with Jurco. The young forward is still developing and might eventually become a top-six quality player, but his recent production leaves more doubt than optimism.
Jurco only mustered three goals in 63 games for the Wings last season, after recording 15 points (8 goals, 7 assists) in 36 games in 2013-14. A reason for optimism is that Jurco is only 22 years old. He hasn’t even played in 100 career NHL games yet, so giving up on him at this point would be foolish; but keeping him on the NHL roster might be even more foolish.
The Wings have a logjam of talent at forward heading into training camp. Pavel Datsyuk will likely miss the first few months of the season after ankle surgery, which would have opened up a roster spot had the team not signed veteran forward Brad Richards to counteract that loss.
Bringing Jurco back to the NHL level will likely mean that other promising young players like Landon Ferraro and Teemu Pulkkinen will waste critical developmental experience as a healthy scratch.
The move also hinders the organization’s ability to make any more moves before the season starts. Jurco brings the Wings to 50 contracts, which is the max amount of total contracts the team can own in a given season. That gives the team no wiggle room to sign a free agent and limits trade mobility in the short-term future.
I hope Jurco proves me wrong with a bounce-back season, but at this point I would rather see what players like Ferraro and Pulkkinen can do with a full season of playing time.
Josh VanDyke covers the Detroit Red Wings, Green Bay Packers, and Michigan State Spartans for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter.
