Daniel Sprong came as advertised in his one year in Detroit.  He scored, played light minutes, and didn’t do much defending.  In 76 games, he finished with 18 goals on an 11.3 shooting percentage and 25 assists for 43 points.  Perhaps the most telling part of his tenure as a Red Wing is that during Detroit’s late season desperation push for the playoffs, Sprong found himself a regular healthy scratch.  That fact made a separation seem inevitable when the now 27-year-old returned to free agency this summer.

The idea of an all offense, no defense sniping winger might sound a bit like a trope, but the underlying numbers suggest Sprong fits the bill perfectly.  Consider the following chart from HockeyViz.com:

Per McCurdy, with Sprong on the ice, Detroit generated plenty of offense but gave up even more, while he himself was a strong finisher and set-up man with a strong “shootiness” score (i.e. an extreme willingness to fire the puck himself).  The seas of red in the defensive zone offer a decent explanation as to the reason the Red Wings have opted to let Sprong walk, his offensive contributions unable to justify his defensive vacuity.  Detroit isn’t the first team to come to that conclusion of Sprong, with the Capitals and Kraken each making a similar decision to allow the Dutch sniper to walk despite strong production in limited usage.

Evidently, it’s a judgment a decent portion of the league shares, with Sprong still un-signed two weeks after the start of unrestricted free agency.  However, even if Sprong might not be a fit for an outfit looking to tighten its defensive belt and push into the postseason, he can provide value via his scoring touch elsewhere.

Around the league, I see a few teams where Sprong might fit, essentially sub-divided into two categories.  First, you have teams without acute short-term playoff prospects, perhaps the Sabres or Canadiens.  Montreal, in particular, would seem a strong fit for Sprong, who grew up in the city after his family moved from Amsterdam to support his hockey career.

Sprong scored in each of his visits to Montreal this year with the Red Wings, so perhaps there is some home-cooking to be benefitted from, and the Canadiens rush-focused attacking style under Martin St. Louis would suit his style perfectly.  However, I don’t think Sprong’s only future is to provide empty calorie goalscoring for a rebuilder.  I do believe he could provide value via discounted scoring punch in a contending team’s bottom six.

At this stage in free agency, it’s unlikely Sprong can command anything beyond a one-year deal at modest term (no more than the $2 million AAV he carried this year).  For a team like the Rangers or Avalanche, that might just make sense.  New York could use a bit more firepower toward the bottom of its lineup, and Sprong could provide that.  On a modest contract, perhaps he would be a periodic healthy scratch, but he could provide a different offensive dimension to the team’s depth.

Meanwhile, Colorado needs quality players up front badly, and the Avs need that quality to come cheap.  With the future of both Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin uncertain (for quite different reasons), Colorado currently has 10 healthy forwards under contract for next season, yet the Avalanche are already on the wrong side of the salary cap.  Sprong could be the exact sort of “scratch and dent” signing that Colorado needs, with the pedigree to provide more offense than could be reasonably expected of any other presently available forward.

Sprong will find a home by October.  The question is what sort of home it might be.

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