Kukla's Korner Hockey
Lilja Regrets Not Signing With Detroit
by Paul on 09/03/10 at 12:22 PM ET
Comments (9)
from Ansar Khan of Mlive,
The Red Wings offered Lilja a one-year deal for $1 million to return for a sixth season. He continued seeking a better deal on the market. When Detroit signed Ruslan Salei on Aug. 9 to a one-year, $750,000 contract (with another $350,000 in potential bonuses), the door was closed on Lilja’s return….
Lilja and his family on Thursday returned to Detroit from their summer home in Sweden. The kids will start the school year here, but Lilja has put his house up for sale while he continues seeking an NHL contract.
“Of course, I regret it (not signing with Detroit),’’ Lilja said. “Now that we got here yesterday, got into my house—we’ve been here five years, it feels like home. The kids like it here. I think I was looking for something else, I guess.’’
Filed in: NHL Teams | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Andreas+Lilja,
Comments
You can’t fault the guy. He is in a situation that many of us are put in throughout our lives. People are constantly negotiating for a better deal… and many times it ends up this way.
However; I am sure he will be playing this year on an NHL team.
Posted by gretzky_to_lemieux on 09/03/10 at 01:27 PM ET
He has played for the Kings before and they have the cap space available. If he wants to be close to his kids because they’re fairly well-settled in suburban Detroit, I’m tempted to say CBJ.
Posted by SYF from the bottom of my, what, 11teenth pint of Guinness? on 09/03/10 at 01:38 PM ET
I think Lilja’s agent deserves a big part of the blame here. Hindsight being 20/20 of course, but I don’t think asking for a raise from his last salary was realistic. Plus, his agent said he wanted more minutes and when pressed about what that means, threw out a number that was actually fewer minutes than he had averaged in Detroit. Lilja isn’t completely innocent in all of this, but I prefer to think that he was misled rather than that he took a misstep.
I sincerely do wish him well wherever he goes.
Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 09/03/10 at 02:24 PM ET
He should sign with Nashville. Unless he plays like a prick in practice, he won’t have to worry about being KO’d by Shea Weber anytime soon.
Posted by Hank1974 on 09/03/10 at 02:29 PM ET
Pain Train’s deralied.
Tisk, tisk.
Posted by Wings_Fan_In_KC from ...somewhere southwest of The Motor City... on 09/03/10 at 02:56 PM ET
Gotta say, I’m really going to miss seeing his smirking face. A few years ago I would’ve been happy to see him go, but he was playing really well leading up to the concussion. It would’ve been great to see him get back to pre-concussion form with the Wings.
Posted by Sadie from Ann Arbor, MI on 09/03/10 at 03:23 PM ET
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bummer – Lilja is a good dude and did his part for the Wings. you’d like to see him get the opportunity to at least play somewhere.
that being said I’m not sure what he was thinking during the negotiation process. offered $1 million to be a 5/6 on a great team and turned it down?
crazy.
Posted by some kid on 09/03/10 at 12:37 PM ET