kory - red since 1992

Draper- gone -trade his faceoff ability should be able to get something Maltby- gone - trade holmstrom- gone - trade hudler- long term 22.5 million ten years or gone Samuelson - same price or gone 1 year downey - ahl or gone mccarty - ahl or gone lilja - training camp healthy or gone meech - dependent on lilja rafalski - look to trade down in price, love the guy but not making his money maybe (NTC assumed) komiserek (sp) or scuderi would sign long term cheaper Hossa - 4 million dependent leino sign long term filpula - look to extend contract before he puts up better numbers and wants more money, another gem in the rough awesome playoffs -probably the only one who'd say this but I would consider putting osgood on the market in conjunction with rafalski and split the salaries - if hossa goes perhaps tanguay or cole would sign for cheap longterm - also if helm plays the 70 games i bet hes in the running for rookie of the year, lets bring out the best of him Franzen-Zetterberg - Cleary Hossa (or who ever they grab to fill him) - Datsyuk - Helm Hudler - Filipula - Leino Hole (samulesson maltby value)- hole to be filled (holmstrom & Meech trade)- Hole (Draper trade) Lidstrom - Ericsson Rafalski (or ideally Komisarek etc to make value for better forwards) - Lebda Kronwal - Stuart Lilja Osgood (see how him and howard do but i think we'll be goalie shopping come the deadline) Howard

So I was looking at the salary cap situation today, and reading the rumour mills of late I had an interesting thought. Let me know your thoughts From Minnesota RW Gaborik - current sallary aprx 6.3m UFA D Bergeron - 0.85m UFA D Zidlicky - 3.35m UFA 2010 G Backstro - 3.1M UFA Pick To Minnesota LW Cleary - 2.5m RW Holmstron - 2.5m D Rafalski - 6m D Kronwall - 3m G Osgood - 1.7m From Minnessota Salary total : 13.6M To Minnessota Salary total: 15.7M Basically, as i see it the Red Wings need some defense improvements and they need to be laying the groundwork for the future. Osgood has as much thanks as can be offered for his contributions to the organization but his time has come. After seeing Conklin perform in the second half of the season I hoped he would be a hidden gem. Alas this season has shown that that gem exists but counting on his consistency is playing cards. Hossa has been the best red wing this season. and rummors suggest he wants to play with gaborik, so why not bring him in. and Rafalski, again wow has he performed exactly as was hoped and expected but is he worth 6 million. The red wings in their top players, hossa, datsyuk, zetterberg, lidstrom, and rafalski pay out 30.3 million. Lets say then making hossa happy by bringing in gaborik allows Detroit to sign them two for 1 year for a total of 13 million (possibly unrealistic but i think the chance to win should factor in). Then lidstrom at 7.45m, and datsyuk at 6.7 ok so 4 out of 5 total 27.15. that would mean Zetterberg could be offered at least $3.15 (which by my accounts is underpaid for performance and comparison). Ok so we freed up 9.7 million (subtract rafalski) from next season, used up 4million on Backstrom (a fair raise), and give bergeron 2.7million, and let zidlicky go (surplus: 3 million) ok then so heres the roster then next season Hossa 6.5 million Gaborik 6.5 million Datsyuk 6.7 million Zetterberg 6.15 million Flippula 2.5 Draper 1.8 Igor Grigorenko (cheap) Samuelsson 2 (raise from 1.2) Hudler 2 (raise from 1.1) Franzen (keep if 2 million or less but likely insert Derek Helm or alternative (for cheap)) Kopecky 0.5 Maltby 0.75 (look to trade over summer for younger same price/performance or sack and insert Grigorenko or alternative) McCarty 0.5 Lidstrom 7.45 Stuart 3.75 million (look to trade over summer for younger cheaper price similar performance or develop from within) Bergeron 2.7 Lilja 1.2 Lebda 0.8 Meech 0.5 Ericsson 1 Backstrom 4 Conklin 1 Ok well i hope that all makes sense anyway so heres the final crunch, we showed it would work within the cap this year, significantly improve the teams defense (in my the goltending improvement would offset any if any loss in rafalski and kronwall). so then in 2009/10 would it work? http://www.letsgowings.com/salarychart/index.php Total salary in this scenario : 60.65 Total salary in 2009/10 assumin all contracts that end in 08/09 were continued in 09/10 : 57.7 So were over next year by 4 million. That said as touched upon above i would drop Stuarts salary somehow, i.e there is no way he is 3 million better than Meech or Lebda, persay. Franzen will likely have to go, if his season continues there is no way that he'll play for 2million or less. here comes internal development!!. Maybe Minnesota wouldn't be interested, but if they are looking to get rid of gaborik and backstrom, the wings should be banging on their door!