{"id":762636,"date":"2026-07-14T15:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/762636\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:54:08","slug":"nhl-insider-suggests-red-wings-target-this-free-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/762636\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL insider suggests Red Wings target this free agent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">It&#8217;s been 12 days since NHL free agency began and there are still plenty of players without contracts.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">What&#8217;s especially surprising is that none of the Detroit Red Wings&#8217; five unrestricted free agents have earned a contract. Of the five players &#8211; Patrick Kane, David Perron, James van Riemsdyk, Travis Hamonic and Cam Talbot &#8211; Kane appears to be next on the list for a contract. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">If what insiders have surmised is to be believed, there&#8217;s a strong chance <a href=\"https:\/\/octopusthrower.com\/red-wings-might-be-out-on-patrick-kane-sweepstakes-01kwpr39p375\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kane doesn&#8217;t come back <\/a>to Detroit. That said, it appears that the Red Wings have planned for this scenario. They already signed Viktor Arvidsson to a two-year deal to add some extra even-strength scoring. All signs indicate that a few young players will make their way to the roster, as well.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\">But what if that isn&#8217;t enough?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"66\">Kane was fifth in scoring among all Red Wings last season with 57 points in 67 games. There&#8217;s no guarantee that Arvidsson returns to the highs he hit last season with 54 points in 59 games. What if there was another solution to help make up for Kane&#8217;s scoring in the aggregate?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">NHL insider David Pagnotta believes one can be found in Finnish forward Eeli Tolvanen:<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"1\" q:id=\"6c\">David Pagnotta: Re Red Wings: With Patrick Kane out&#8230;presumably out, they&#8217;re looking to replace that piece; I do wonder about an Eeli Tolvanen &#8211; Leafs Morning Take (7\/10)<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"2\" q:id=\"6d\">July 12, 2026<\/a>How Eeli Tolvanen can help the Red Wings<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">Tolvanen is an even-strength wizard. 22 of the Seattle Kraken forward&#8217;s 36 points last season came at at 5v5 and 77 of his 92 career goals came at even-strength. Had Tolvanen played on the Red Wings last season, he would have been the most productive member of the bottom-six, outperforming James van Riemsdyk, David Perron, Michael Rasmussen, J.T. Compher, Marco Kasper and Mason Appleton on the scoresheet. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">The Finnish forward is, by all accounts, an objective upgrade on the team&#8217;s bottom-six. His uncanny ability to score at even-strength is a skill the Red Wings desperately need, as the team finished in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nhl\/ask\/even-strength-points-leaders-by-team-this-season\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bottom third<\/a> of even-strength scoring in NHL last season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">That said, the Red Wings won&#8217;t sign Tolvanen until they&#8217;re sure of one thing:<a href=\"https:\/\/octopusthrower.com\/red-wings-haven-t-had-their-post-free-agency-press-conference-for-good-reason-01kx13qxtaes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Patrick Kane&#8217;s fate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Red Wings still holding out for hope on Kane<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">Despite what some NHL insiders may speculate, the door hasn&#8217;t closed on Kane in Detroit just yet. Kane&#8217;s camp made it clear early in the offseason that a return is certainly possible. It likely comes down to term. Players like Brad Marchand of the Florida Panthers and Sergei Bobrovsky of the Toronto Maple Leafs are both close to Kane&#8217;s age and have secured multi-year contracts this offseason. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">Kane&#8217;s camp is likely hoping for a longer-term deal after signing a handful of short-term contracts. If a deal is to be made, the Red Wings will likely need to pony up for the long haul. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow octopusthrower.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=octopusthrower.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s been 12 days since NHL free agency began and there are still plenty of players without contracts.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-762636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}