Bertuzzi spin-o-ramas his way to extension

***UPDATE: Thursday, 11:55am***
The team has made the signing official — announcing the extension this morning. A few hours later, TSN’s Bob McKenzie would deliver the figures and they’re a little lower than originally reported:

He will make $1.975M next season — and $2.175M in 2013-14. The cap hit, which is calculated by taking the average of salaries over the term of the deal, is $2.075M.

News also broken by McKenzie, Bertuzzi has a no-trade clause attached to the new deal. No word if it’s a full no-trade or no-movement, or if it’s modified and allows for him to submit a list of teams he will (or won’t) accept movement to.

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The Red Wings are allegedly close to signing shootout specialist (LOL) Todd Bertuzzi to a two-year contract extension worth $2.2M per season. The deal was first reported by The Detroit Free Press and Helene St. James.

Bertuzzi is currently 7th on the Red Wings in scoring (and dead last among the Top 6 forwards). He’s on pace for 16 goals and 23 assists — which would be his lowest point total since the season he was first acquired by the Red Wings (2006-07) when he only suited up for 15 games.

It’s important to note that, because of Bertuzzi’s age, any multi-year deal would be a 35+ contract under the current collective bargaining agreement. While these rules may change with the upcoming CBA negotiations, any cap hit in years two and beyond of a multi-year deal that began after the player’s 35th birthday will count against the team’s cap no matter what happens with the player: if he’s demoted, injured and can’t play, or retires suddenly, Todd Bertuzzi’s cap hit will count against Detroit’s salary cap.

The Wings and Bertuzzi’s agent, Pat Morris, have been working on an extension for the past month or so — and both sides were clear that they wanted to remain working together and allow Bertuzzi to continue his playing career in Detroit. First acquired by the Red Wings at the trade deadline in 2007 (for Shawn Matthias and some conditional picks). He played the rest of the season and the playoffs for the Wings and bolted for Anaheim, where he signed a two-year deal. They only wanted one year of the Tuzz and bought out his contract over the following summer. He signed a one-year deal to play in Calgary before returning to the Red Wings in 2009-10. The second of subsequent one-year contracts was set to expire on July 1st of this upcoming summer.

With Niklas Kronwall and Todd Bertuzzi already signed to extension, cross two pending free agents off of the list. The remaining upcoming free agents are Mike Commodore, Tomas Holmstrom, Jiri Hudler, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brad Stuart (all UFAs); Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Kyle Quincey (all RFAs); Fabian Brunnstrom, Ty Conklin, Chris Conner, Garnet Exelby, Doug Janik, Jamie Johnson, Chris Minard (UFAs who are currently playing in Grand Rapids); Travis Ehrhardt, Tom McCollum, and Logan Pyett (RFAs playing in Grand Rapids).

Photo Credit: Dave Reginek, NHLI via Getty Images