After a huge breakout season which saw him score 23 goals and 21 assists for 44 points with 8 of those goals coming on the powerplay. Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader is on the last year of his current contract. The season will be an extremely important season for Abdelkader considering odds are, it will determine the money and term he will get.
Abdelkaders value: Abdelkader has only had one really good season points wise, with that being last year. In his career 398 games played, he has 61 goals and 71 assists (131 points). Before last season with 327 games played he only had 38 goals and 50 assists. He almost matched his career numbers in one year. But, he's still a valuable forward. He can play on any line, whether it's the first line with Datsyuk or the 4th line with someone like Glendening. He is a big body and uses it quite often, one of the more physical guys that's on the Red Wings roster. He likes to stand in front of the net to screen the goalie and cause a whole lot of problems for the opposition which is something that with Franzen being hurt and Cleary not cracking the lineup, the Wings really lack. So while you may not expect a whole lot of offense from him on the stat sheet, he's certainly a valuable player for the Wings.
Prediction: While I don't expect him to be a regular 20 goal scorer or a 40 point guy, he's still a good player. I would expect his numbers to come down to earth a little bit for him but I can still see him scoring 15 goals and maybe 30-35 points depending on what line he plays on. I see him getting a decent raise and getting roughly 2.5-3 million per year for 3 years.
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