The Detroit Red Wings have yet to sign their young restricted free agent Andreas Athanasiou, and they could be about to lose him overseas. We’ve previously reported that Athanasiou had received a contract offer from the KHL, and now Darren Dreger of TSN reports that he’s “in ongoing discussions” with Russian teams. Dreger states that unless there is a change in negotiations with Detroit, the speedy forward will likely sign in the KHL for 2017-18.
It was assumed by many that the KHL offer was just a leverage tactic of agent Darren Ferris, brought up to force the Red Wings to increase their offer after Athanasiou’s breakout campaign. It still could be, but the closer we get to training camp the more real the threat becomes. The KHL deal is expected to be much higher than Ken Holland and the Red Wings are offering.
Athanasiou scored 18 goals last season but has been criticized in the past for an apparent lack of effort and passive play in his own end. While he possesses game-breaking speed that can create offense on a moment’s notice, there have been too many times it disappeared entirely from games. He faced discipline in the form of healthy scratches at times this year, but is still an important piece to the Detroit puzzle going forward. For a team that is dangling somewhere between a bubble playoff team and a full rebuild, losing offense and youth in one swing would be painful. Though, as we’ve mentioned before in our live chats it would give the team a bit of financial relief, while still holding Athanasiou’s rights.