The Detroit Red Wings signed Swedish forward Henrik Zetterberg to the longest contract in team history on Wednesday, a 12-year US$73 million deal to 2021.
“Henrik is one of the world’s premier players at both ends of the ice,” general manager Ken Holland said. “This is a tremendous commitment on the part of the organization as well as by Henrik. We are thrilled that a player we drafted and developed will play out his career in Detroit with this lifetime contract.”
Zetterberg could have become a free agent at the end of this season, his sixth in the NHL, but Holland said the team decided 28-year-old Zetterberg was “one of the players we wanted to build our franchise around.”
PHOTO: AP
Negotiations began last June.
“I’m happy I don’t have to do it again,” Zetterberg said. “I don’t want to play anywhere else.”
The contract will pay Zetterberg US$7.4 million next season, US$7.75 million in each of the following three seasons and US$7.5 million in each of the next four seasons. He will receive US$7 million in the 2017-2018 season, US$3.35 million in 2018-2019 and US$1 million in each of the final two seasons.
“From the start they’ve been taking good care of me,” Zetterberg said.
He has 43 points in 45 games this season, the last of a four-year, US$10.4 million contract. In 400 NHL games, he has 169 goals and 375 points, and 28 goals and 52 points in 62 playoff games.
He was picked to the All-NHL second team last season, when he and then-linemate Pavel Datsyuk combined for 74 goals.
Zetterberg also set a franchise record with 27 points in last year’s playoffs, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP when Detroit won their first Stanley Cup since 2002. He scored the clinching goal in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“Our goal is to try to keep this team together,” said team vice president Steve Yzerman, who won three Cups as a Red Wings player. “He’s the kind of person and the kind of player we want in this organization.”
The salary cap — US$56.7 million per team this season — makes it likely that Holland will have to choose between two other key players who become free agents at the end of the season: Slovak winger Marian Hossa and Swedish center Johan Franzen.
“We’re not going to be able to keep every player,” Holland said.
But Zetterberg’s contract is structured so that it “gives us a chance to keep an extra player down the road,” he said.
PENGUINS 6, RANGERS 2
At Pittsburgh, Petr Sykora and Kris Letang each had two goals, and Sidney Crosby got back into action with a goal and two assists in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 6-2 victory over the New York Rangers on Wednesday.
FLAMES 5, SABRES 2
At Calgary, Alberta, Michael Cammalleri stayed hot through the All-Star break and scored three more goals to lift Calgary over Buffalo.
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