Athanasiou's offers from Red Wings, KHL have 'considerable difference'

Little progress has been made in the negotiations between the Detroit Red Wings and restricted free agent forward Andreas Athanasiou, his agent Darren Ferris told Ansar Khan of MLive.com.

The latest update comes just nine days after a KHL club tabled a one-year contract for Athanasiou to take his game overseas.

"Andreas is evaluating the pros and cons of all the offers," Ferris told Khan. "Andreas loves Detroit and especially the Detroit fans but he has to really consider the serious offers from the KHL he has before him. There is a considerable difference in the amount of money."

How the needle moves from here appears to be up to Athanasiou's camp, as Red Wings general manager Ken Holland noted he has already extended several different offers.

"The ball is in their court," Holland told Khan. "They have a decision to make."

Further complicating the matter is that the Red Wings are in a contract jam, as they're more than $3 million above the salary cap, according to CapFriendly.

While Detroit can soon free up some dollars by placing winger Johan Franzen - whose cap hit is nearly $4 million - on the long-term injured reserve, it would still leave little wiggle room to get a deal done with Athanasiou.

Athanasiou, 23, made his debut with the Red Wings two seasons ago, and became a regular last year when he recorded 29 points in 64 games.