What Are the Detroit Red Wings Going to Do with Stephen Weiss?

There was some relatively good news for Stephen Weiss on Saturday. For the first time since injuring his groin in what was supposed to be a two-game AHL conditioning stint, Weiss was able to take in a full practice, and he didn't feel any pain.

"I did everything I can off the ice to get back healthy," Weiss told MLive.com's Ansar Khan. "Last few days felt really good, so seemed to turn the corner again."

Weiss is presently on injured reserve, a place he has spent a lot of time over the last two-and-counting seasons. Since the start of the 2012-13 campaign, Weiss has played just 45 games; this season, he has appeared in all of two contests—one in the NHL, and the other in the minors—leaving that second game after feeling tightness in his groin.  

Khan noted that the Wings are being cautious with Weiss and that they'll need to see him manage a full week of practices without health problems before they're willing to get him back to playing games, most likely in the minors to finish that interrupted conditioning stint.

Assuming that Weiss is finally healthy—not an assumption to make lightly—the question for Detroit is what to do with the disappointing centre both in the short and long terms.

Bill Wippert/Getty Images

In the short term, one has to think that Weiss, despite a disappointing training camp, will be given an opportunity to contribute. The Red Wings' depth forwards simply aren't producing enough at this point; players like Joakim Andersson, Luke Glendening, Andrej Nestrasil, Drew Miller and even Tomas Jurco are all regulars and all have been virtual non-factors offensively.

If the team was firing on all cylinders, it would be easy to let Weiss sit until injuries opened up a roster spot, but right now, there are plenty of candidates who have earned a night or two in the press box.

Assuming Weiss is healthy and further assuming that Mike Babcock is open to giving him a look, he needs to show something. A trade is almost certainly a non-starter given his contract (Weiss has a $4.9 million cap hit for the rest of this season and three more after it), so Detroit's options basically come down to buying the veteran out of his deal or hanging on to him and hoping he can turn things around.

What difference would a buyout make? With CapGeek.com's buyout calculator, it's easy to see the dramatic difference:

Season	Status Quo	Buyout	Difference
2015-16	4.90	1.07	3.83
2016-17	4.90	1.07	3.83
2017-18	4.90	2.57	2.33
2018-19	---	1.67	-1.67
2019-20	---	1.67	-1.67
2020-21	---	1.67	-1.67

In sum, if Detroit decides to buy out Weiss' contract this coming June, the team will clear roughly $5 million in cap space over the next six seasons, meaning that if he can be replaced by a guy making roughly $850,000, this is a no-brainer for the Red Wings.

Dave Reginek/Getty Images

But that raw figure doesn't capture the full benefit. For one thing, Detroit's savings are front-loaded, with the team looking at massive increases in cap space for the next three seasons if it makes a buyout decision in June. There are negative ramifications in the three years following that, but those ramifications are pretty small, and it's a decent bet that the salary cap will have increased at that point, meaning that the percentage of the salary cap eaten up by Weiss' buyout will be lower (a $1.67 million penalty hurts more with a $70 million cap than it does with an $80 million cap).

Right now, that buyout looks like the smart decision. We discussed the possibility of a Weiss comeback over the summer, and even if he'd been healthy out of the gate, it looked like a poor bet, as it's been half a decade since he was the player who really starred for Florida. His poor training camp combined with injuries since just reinforces how unlikely it is that he ever lives up to his contract.  

There's a small window here where Weiss can prove that he's worth keeping around for another season. Given their other struggling forwards, the Red Wings would be wise to give Weiss an opportunity to show something. But unless he really impresses, a summer buyout seems a foregone conclusion.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.