Red Wings Place Ceiling On Moritz Seider & Lucas Raymond AAVs?

Two of the biggest restricted free agents in the NHL remain unsigned, and reside on the same team, in Detroit Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider. The latest update on what the Wings might be thinking in their negotiations with the pair comes to us from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press.

She reports that GM Steve Yzerman's preference is that neither Raymond nor Seider will surpass their teammate Dylan Larkin as the highest-paid player on the team. If true, that means that there would be an $8.7 million AAV ceiling placed on the negotiations, which certainly makes sense. Larkin signed an eight-year contract with an $8.7 million cap hit that began last season.

Insider Elliotte Friedman told us on his 32 Thoughts podcast on Friday that he was "guaranteed" that the Ottawa Senators' Tim Stutzle's 8-year, $8.35 million contract inked last year is the closest comparable that Raymond's camp is using, and that Yzerman will not go there.

"Teams think it's too high," said Friedman. "'I guarantee you, (the source) said, they brought up Stutzle, and Yzerman said 'Don't even bring that here. That's their (Senators') situation, that's not our situation'."

Friedman also noted that he was told that the Seth Jarvis comp from this summer with the Carolina Hurricanes (8 years, $7.42M) is much lower than what the Raymond camp is looking at. As for the d-man, Seider, he has some higher comps to work with as well, with Jake Sanderson and Owen Power both coming in over the $8M mark.