- Edvinsson’s agent says the camp is waiting on Detroit’s next GM before talks restart
- Nicklas Lidstrom admits things have gone quiet with camp opening September 17
- Read below for the numbers Edvinsson’s new contract is being measured against
Simon Edvinsson’s next contract is stuck in a holding pattern, and money has nothing to do with it.
The Red Wings defenseman played out his entry-level deal this spring and talks on a long-term extension were already underway when Steve Yzerman stepped down as general manager in July. Everything froze right there.
Edvinsson’s agent, CAA’s Peter Werner, was asked by Expressen’s Gunnar Nordstrom what the holdup is.
“We’re not speculating, we’re just patiently waiting for the new general manager.”
Chris Ilitch is running the search and hired an outside firm to help. Detroit has worked through a candidate list without landing anyone, and Shawn Horcoff is handling acting GM duties in the meantime.
Nicklas Lidstrom, the club’s vice president of hockey operations, got the same question about where the Edvinsson file sits.
“We want to keep Simon, but it’s a bit quiet right now. As you know, we’re looking for a new general manager.”
Edvinsson has turned into the player Detroit hoped for when it took him sixth overall in 2021. He posted 31 points in 78 games during his first full NHL season, then went for nine goals and 16 assists in 72 games last year while logging better than 22 minutes a night, second on the roster only to Moritz Seider.
Take a look at how he got there:
Seider is the obvious comparable. He signed a seven-year, $59.85 million deal off his own entry-level contract in September 2024, and that $8.55 million cap hit swallowed 9.72 percent of the ceiling at the time. The same slice today is worth roughly $10.1 million.
| Contract | Term | Cap hit |
|---|---|---|
| Seider, signed Sept. 2024 | 7 years | $8.55M |
| Edvinsson projection (AFP Analytics) | 7 years | $8.77M |
| Edvinsson entry-level deal | 3 years | $894,167 |
Expressen pegs his market value a touch lower, in the $7.5 million to $8 million range. Detroit qualified him earlier in the summer, so the rights are secure, and he remains eligible to sign an offer sheet elsewhere even if Werner’s answer points away from that route.
Training camp opens September 17, and the Dylan Larkin question is sitting in the same queue. Detroit has to hire a general manager before it can hand anybody a pen.
