The Detroit Red Wings have had themselves an incredibly busy day.
With the signings coming in at a break-neck pace on the first day of free agency, the Red Wings continued their torrid tour through the open market, agreeing to terms with forward Dominik Kubalik on a two-year contract worth an average annual value of $2.5 million.
The details of the deal, which now ties Kubalik to Detroit through the 2023-24 season, such as its salary structure or inclusion of any trade protection have yet to be released.
Despite the carnage that surrounded him in Chicago, Kubalik managed to continue being a productive middle-six winger over the past three seasons. It’s easy to forget that Kubalik burst onto the scene in a big way back in 2019, racking up 30 goals as a rookie for the Blackhawks and earning a spot among the three Calder Trophy finalists from that year.
Even in the time since his bombastic debut, Kubalik has still managed to put up decent numbers, scoring 17 goals in 2021 and another 15 in 2021-22 to chip in offense while logging under 16 minutes per night for a basement-dwelling team.
Now heading to the Motor City, Kubalik joins a Red Wings organization that is actually trying to win games for the foreseeable future, hoping that his addition can help kick-start the team’s upswing after years of scorched-earth rebuilding.
While Kubalik won’t do it on his own, the support that GM Steve Yzerman has assembled around him will certainly help that cause. And at just $2.5 million against the cap, Kubalik seems like precisely the type of depth signing that a team looking to take a big jump tends to make.
