I gotta say, our friend Zach Werenski is taking a real strange route in getting back to Detroit. I wrote a blog last week detailing how it is only a matter of time until the stud blue liner is back playing in Hockeytown. Pulled a couple quotes from TWO SEPARATE podcasts saying that Werenski has made it known to his camp he will make it to Detroit someday. I love that news more than I'll love my first born. But this past week during the frenzy of the NHL free agency, our boy made an interesting move as far as playing for the Red Wings is concerned.
Big deal for Zach Werenski: He signs a six-year extension with #CBJ carrying a $9.583M AAV.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 30, 2021
Not ideal. When I was cooking up hypothetical trades and pleading my case for why CBJ should save themselves the agony and just give Werenski to us now, I certainly did not anticipate him signing a phat extension there. This is the hockey equivalent of getting faced with a pie when you aren't expecting it, but they ran out of banana cream at the pie shop down the road so it's actually just shaving cream in a pie tray. Fucking brutal.
I can live with the extension, that doesn't really mean he's locked in anywhere forever, but this next part is the proverbial "sorry, we just ran out of the key lime, here's our rhubarb but we actually ran out of that too so it's just dog shit pie".
"It was really a no-brainer. I’m a Blue Jacket, I want to continue to be a Blue Jacket and do everything I can to bring a Stanley Cup here.”
— Brian Hedger (@BrianHedger) July 30, 2021
Zach Werenski is now under contract with the #CBJ for seven more years.
A "star" is staying put. Finally.https://t.co/NBe8n7mAEm
No brainer? Stanley Cup? I'm a Blue Jacket? Zach... this isn't part of the plan my guy. But we got positives, we always got positives guys. What's life if the glass is half empty? We know he isn't gonna come out to the press and say, "Yea I actually just wanted to get an extension signed but I still plan on ending up in Detroit", unfortunately that just isn't on the cards in that situation. However, it's not to say that when Zach is writing in his dream book each night before bed it isn't all winged wheels and pictures of $5 hot and ready's. Very well could be.
Most people would probably look at those quotes and the extension and think that he does have every intention of spending g at least a good portion of the rest of his career in Columbus, but like the great thinkers of generations past (Einstein, Galileo, the guy/girl who invented La Croix) I have the ability to think outside of the box. There is one real explanation of all of the seemingly unfortunate events in the Zach Werenski off season: he is just that stand up of a guy.
Think about it, this guy is just a class act. Cream of the crop, Lady Byng 2.0. Guy would never leave his old team in the dust, and certainly would never speak on how he will end up leaving them one day to go to a far more superior team and market. He has too much integrity and compassion for shit like that, fortunately I don't so I'm able to see through it. He is such a good dude that he decided to extend with CBJ so when he inevitably does get moved to Detroit we will have no choice but to give the Jackets assets back. He eliminated the possibility of us signing him for free, just because he respects CBJ that much and is a man of that level of honor. What a fucking guy. The more I type the more I like this move. Not only will Detroit be getting a top 5 D-man in the league but they'll be getting a top 1 integrity guy in the league. Nothing you find on statcast can quanitfy being a stand up guy, and we want those in Detroit. Great extension for both Werenski and the Red Wings.