No rest for the weary. The draft is not even 24 hours old and we’re already moving forward towards free agency.
It makes no sense for the Wings to shell out the money it would take to secure Kevin Shattenkirk, the marquee defenseman expected to be available. Would he help them? Yes. Would he transform them into contenders? No.
The Wings can’t do it anyway because salary space is an issue. They have about $8 million to play with as it stands, but a chunk of that will go towards re-signing restricted free agents Tomas Tatar and Andreas Athanasiou, among others.