Back from the USSR? [UPDATED]

Vacation's over, give Stalin his hat back.

Earlier today TSN (Bob McKenzie/Darren Dreger) reported that the Red Wings are close to a deal with veteran goalie Evgeni Nabokov. Nabokov, the noted ex-Shark, recently terminated his contract with the KHL for whatever reason. I don't really care why he did it. I like Nabby, and it'll be nice to see him back in the NHL, but his signing should raise some relevant questions for the Red Wings organization and the NHL as a whole to some extent.

More after the jump...





What is Ken Holland willing to throw at Nabby?

According to CapGeek.com the Wings currently have $3,556,348 to play with, which probably isn't as much as they'd like when taking performance bonuses into account. Whatever.
In his last year in the NHL, Nabokov earned around 5.5 mil. Clearly he isn't worth that much anymore, but it'll be interesting to see how much Holland presents him with. My guess would be somewhere slightly above a million. At this point, I think Nabby understands that he's a vet, and that he's just not the 6 million dollar man he used to be.

UPDATE: Nabokov reportedly signs for $570,000 for the rest of the year.

Jimmy Howard?

Raise your hand if you feel like you might get replaced.

I think if (when) Nabokov comes back he'll have something to prove. As I mentioned I think he knows he's getting older, but at the same time I think he'll want to prove that he's just as good as all the other 35 year old goalies in the league, with the exception of Chris Osgood.

Chris Osgood is mud.

Howard has to know whats going on, and he has to feel at least a little insecure about his starting job, but at the same time he should take the opportunity to learn from Nabby, a solid vet who can offer him more advice than any goalie he's played with to date.

Mud.

Snagged in the waiver wire?

A rather humorous trend this year in the NHL (not so much from the Blues point of view). The possibility remains that even after Detroit signs Nabokov, he still may get picked up off of waivers by another team, being that many teams are hurting for goaltenders. The waiver system struck earlier this year with Kyle Wellwood and Marek Svatos, both signed by the St.Louis Blues both being picked up by other teams.

At least we still have Don Draper...

I didn't really want to analyze this point, I just find the waiver wire to be a cruel and hilarious system. If he gets picked up off waivers, you can expect a post from me simply about how much I laughed, and if it was in an inappropriate social situation.

UPDATE: With a salary of only $570,000 it looks like Nabby could likely get picked up off of waivers. Shit's about to get rull funny.