Unbelievable: Red Wings considers buying out Justin Holl….read more.

The buyout front was very active last month. After being released by their previous teams, Cam Atkinson, Adam Boqvist, Jack Campbell, Nate Schmidt, Jeff Skinner, and Ryan Suter became unrestricted free agents (UFAs) and subsequently signed deals for the current campaign.

The addition of Red Wings defenseman Justin Holl to that list should have come as no surprise. Holl, 32, was a reliable top-four option for the Maple Leafs for the previous four seasons until signing a three-year, $10.2MM contract with the Wings during the summer of free agency.

However, in his final NHL season, Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde did not even use him, much less use a player with a $3.4MM cap cost. Holl made just 38 appearances during the year, being sidelined for more over half of it while remaining largely healthy. During those games, he averaged 15:05, which was his lowest since an 11-game stay in Toronto in 2018–19. He also recorded five assists, a +8 rating, and 22 PIMs.

Although Detroit had a lot of cap room going into the summer, most people anticipated that general manager Steve Yzerman would use what he had. To break their eight-year playoff drought in 2025, the Wings were projected to be among the most active teams in the UFA market, but they still need new deals for their cornerstone RFAs, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider.

That was not actually the case. Winger Vladimir Tarasenko, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, was their most well-known acquisition to the team. He essentially took David Perron’s spot after he left for the Senators in free agency. They did succeed in keeping Patrick Kane for a single-year, $6.5MM contract and sent top-pair defenseman Jake Walman to the Sharks in a cap-dump transaction. They also traded James Reimer for Cam Talbot at the goalie position. As things stand, one could argue that their squad has gotten worse from the team that finished second in the East wild card race the previous season due to a tiebreaker with the Washington Capitals.

To that end, rather than increasing their cap space by just buying out Holl, some were perplexed when Yzerman chose to attach a second-round selection to get rid of Walman, who was extremely efficient in his role alongside Seider at even strength for the last two seasons. However, a buyout would have resulted in a dead cap cost of $1.13MM for the following four seasons, given that Holl had two years left on his deal. As they go closer to contention, that’s probably not something they wanted to be held accountable for, according to Max Bultman of The Athletic.

Nevertheless, Lalonde had good reason to use Holl sparingly. Even though Holl was given more favorable use than he had at Toronto, he returned the favor by controlling just 42.6% of predicted goals, the lowest possession quality results of his career. In each of his four seasons as a regular with the Leafs, he had been over 50%.

But with Walman out of the picture and increased demand on young players like Simon Edvinsson to play this season, Holl might find himself used more as a safety net. For the time being at least, Bultman “doesn’t get the sense from Yzerman that he thinks Holl is a lost cause.” After all, just a year before, he had signed him to an eight-figure, multi-season contract.

However, Bultman believes that if Detroit were to replicate its success from the previous season, they would probably investigate a buyout more actively during Holl’s final season when the opportunity opens in June of next year. According to PuckPedia, there would still be a $1.13MM dead cap penalty, but only for the next two seasons. On July 1, 2027, just one year after his contract was set to end, Holl would no longer be listed.

By doing this, the Wings would be able to sign free agents for more than $2MM in 2025. When the Raymond and Seider agreements finally close this summer, they’ll have their whole core secured for the long run. In addition to the $4.75MM cap hit for goalie Ville Husso and the $5.34MM value of Olli Määttä and Jeff Petry that will be released from their contracts in 2025, there are no real key players available for new contracts.