The Detroit Red Wings have signed left-winger Lucas Raymond to an eight-year contract extension with an average annual value of $8.075 million. This news comes hours after the team signed Jonatan Berggren to a one-year contract worth $825,000. Raymond is one of the two free agents, along with defenseman Moritz Seider, that the Red Wings needed to sign. Perhaps this news means that a Seider contract is on the horizon.
The Raymond contract extension leaves the Red Wings with $8.748 million in salary cap space for the 2024-25 season, per Puckpedia. This is a piece of business done by general manager Steve Yzerman that may age better as the player does the same. The Red Wings have 22 out of 23 active roster spaces filled for this upcoming season. Training camp for the Red Wings begins on September 19th as the team begins the 2024-25 campaign.
Raymond has been durable throughout his young career so far, only missing eight games in three seasons at the NHL level. The Gothenburg, Sweden native scored a career-high 31 goals and added 41 assists for a total of 72 points during the 2023-24 NHL season. These 72 points were three more than Dylan Larkin had for the most on the team. Despite this, the Red Wings missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for the eighth season in a row.
At 22-years-old Raymond will be on the Red Wings throughout the prime of his career. Both Raymond and Seider are the cornerstones for the Red Wings’ franchise moving forward, and as of this writing, one of them has been locked up long-term. Raymond nearly single-handedly dragged the Red Wings’ roster to the 2023-24 playoffs and the team needs to not only make it to the playoffs but win playoff series with Raymond on the roster.
