Heinz

It has earlier been reported that Alexander Galimov has died from his burns in the hospital. The News Channel "Russia Today" just reported that doctors cant confirm that Alexander has died. So there is still hope that at least he may survive this tragedy. Fight Alex!

In Germany it has been confirmed that Robert Dietrich died in the accident. This is just horrible and sad. So many players we all knew. 3 victims with a Red Wings background. I am shocked and sad. However, there is still hope for Ruslan. The passenger list posted here does not include him and there have been earlier reports that he was waiting for the team in Minsk. In particular with consideration to his young family, it would be at leas ta small comfort if his live was saved. Anyways, my prayers are with all victims and their families.

I am quite happy with our Free Agent activities so far. Obviously White and Commodore don't replace Rafalski, but both come at a very good price with short term contracts. So not much risk there. The FA Pool didnt really offer much this year, so there is no sense at all in signing a and badly overpaying an average guy to a 6 or 7 year contract and thereby making us unable to act in next years free agency, where we might find someone worth to spend big $ on and who would a much better fit than the top FAs this year.