With Tyler Bertuzzi on the free agent market, the Detroit Red Wings need to consider bringing him back.
I still remember when I first heard the news, scanning social media and seeing that Tyler Bertuzzi had been traded to the Boston Bruins. It was a gut punch after watching the Red Wings go on a losing streak that pushed General Manager Steve Yzerman to sell at the trade deadline. Bertuzzi was and still is my wife’s favorite player. She was devastated. It was hard to see him go, then pictures and videos started to appear with him in a Bruins jersey playing with his new team.
Some relief for me came in the fact that he wasn’t traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins or some other teams that I can’t stand. At the very least, he was traded to the team with the most wins ever in a regular season and had a good shot at the Stanley Cup. Bertuzzi was playing on the top six and racking up the points. The wheels fell off, however, as the Bruins blew a 3-1 series lead to the Florida Panthers in the first round.
There was a tiny bit of hope that Bertuzzi would come back to the Wings after his time with the Boston Bruins. Maybe there was a plan with Yzerman to get the 1st round pick in the trade, then sign him back to the team, a true rental situation. It was not to be as more bad news came from a social media post that Bertuzzi had signed a one-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. This was confusing to me. I heard the reason it didn’t work out in Detroit was that he wanted a longer term deal than what was offered to him.
This season in Toronto, Bertuzzi got off to a slow start before picking up the pace and starting to fit in as the season moved along. He was moved around in the lineup and had a decent season as the Leafs headed into another playoff run. It came as a shock to no one except Toronto fans, the Maple Leafs were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round again. Now Bertuzzi is back on the free agent market again and will be looking for his next contract.
Copyright © 2024
Leave a Reply