Detroit Red Wings sign Olli Maatta to two-year extension

The Detroit Red Wings have signed defenseman Olli Maatta to a two-year contract extension with a cap hit of $3 million.

Maatta is currently on a one-year deal with the Red Wings, signed to a cap hit of $2.25 million. He was set to become an unrestricted free agency at the end of the deal. His comparable cap hits for next season are Justin Schultz, Dylan DeMelo, Mike Reilly, Ryan Lindgren, and Derek Forbort.

This extension takes Maatta off the trade market as the trade deadline approaches on March 3rd. He ranked 39th on Frank Seravalli’s most recent Trade Targets list before his extension, and is now off the board completely.

Maatta is having a bit of a bounce-back season offensively in Detroit, with five goals, 12 assists, and 17 points in 49 games so far. It’s already his most productive season since 2019-20, and his current pace would fall one point short of his career-highs of 29 points that he achieved in 2013-14 and 2017-18.

Along with the offensive resurgence, Maatta has also proven to be a solid defensive defenseman, or at the very least when he isn’t thrust into tough minutes. His 2.66 xGA/60 at 5v5 are tied with Moritz Seider for third among Red Wings defensemen, and his 1.6 goals above replacement rank third outright.

Maatta was selected 22nd overall in 2012 by the Pittsburgh Penguins, and spent the first six seasons of his career in Pittsburgh, winning two Stanley Cups with them in 2016 and 2017. He was then dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2019 and spent one season with them before he was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings, where he spent another two seasons before joining the Red Wings.

With this signing, the Red Wings now have four defensemen currently on their NHL roster locked up for at least next season, with Jordan Oesterle, Jake Walman, Gustav Lindstrom, and Robert Hagg still in need of new contracts. They’ll have more than $37 million in cap space to do so, but they have bigger fish to fry with both Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi set to become unrestricted free agents.