without hossa and samuleson

[Gnredwing 10]

Without Hossa and Samuelson do the wings have enough money to sign a decent foward?

[Cern 0]

Depends on how much Hudler is after

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Depends on how much Hudler is after

Not even that is too critical. Even if Hudler's salary magically stayed the same the Wings would only have a couple million to toss around. Sign Leino at a reasonable number, give Hudler a reasonable increase and they have a bit more than a million to sign the 12th forward.

Cutting some fat on defense should help a bit, although defensive depth saved this team in the playoffs this year.

[Aussie_Wing 354]

To the OP's question, no we won't.

Once Hudler and Leino are signed, we will have virtually no money left, even without Hossa and Samuelsson. We're only going to sign a cheap as chips 4th line forward.

[Superman54 91]

crazy how one year we have loads amount of depth, and the next we have no choice but to dress Draper and Malts.

[egroen 384]

Last year's team was one of the best we will probably ever see in the cap world.

I'm still banging my head over them not winning it... you just will not see a team like that very often anymore.

[Thunderpriest 8]

I think that we end up giving a raise to Hudler, re-signing Leino, letting Sammy go, trade a defensemen depending on Lilja's health (if Lilja's healthy, I'd trade Lebda), and then bring some of the kids up from GR.

Personally....I'm just fine with that.

Here's how the roster could look:

Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Holmstrom

Cleary, Flippula, Franzen

Leino, Helm, Hudler

Maltby, Draper, Abdelkader

Lidstrom, Rafalski

Kronwall, Stuart

Ericsson, Lilja

Osgood

Howard

I don't know how this lineup fits cap-wise....I'm too lazy to look everyone up.....but Meech is under contract and could fill a swing role, or he could be traded and we could fill some more depth up front.

Either that, or re-sign Kopecky and package both Lebda & Meech for picks. In that instance, put Kopy with Maltby & Draper & move Abdelkader down for depth.

[GoalieManPat 1,007]

If Lilja is healthy Meech is gone

[stormboy 47]

i think given the cap sitch and holland saying they're NOT going to make a big free-agency signing this summer, i think our options are a lot more limited than they were last year. top line is going to be

zetterberg-datsyuk-holmstrom

almost assuredly. second line has some options, depending on how players are going. i see it being

franzen-filppula-?

obviously, the second line is never going to be as good w/o hossa on it. i would put hudler there, though you really could go with cleary or leino if he's stepping up. with hudler on the second line, i'd go

leino-helm-cleary

maltby-draper-kader

for the bottom two. what would be nice is if we can sign hudler for a reasonable amount, we might be able to get a drake-esqe player to rotate in for maltby and draper. a nice, tough grinder on the bottom line would really fill out the roster, IMO.

[Finnish Wing 110]

Meech is not going anywhere. He can play both F and D. It's Lilja or Lebda who will be dumped.

[Superman54 91]

Abs will be playing in GR, its already been said. Detroit still have a superstar team, they just can't afford to get injured as much as they did last year, because most of the depth wings had is gone.

[AtomicPunk 296]

Not Hudler, he said a DECENT forward. (Just kidding)

[T.Low 1,011]

Last year's team was one of the best we will probably ever see in the cap world.

I'm still banging my head over them not winning it... you just will not see a team like that very often anymore.

I hear ya, brother.

[Zion 93]

Truth is the Wings are in trouble, and they need to either sign a few players for cheap that can somehow help (and not like Kyle Calder "helped" on the 2nd line) with some playoff scoring to take the pressure off of Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Franzen, who will be the focus in the playoffs.

Maybe some tough guys? I dunno. Last year's team was as close to "it" as you can get in this cap world.

[Thunderpriest 8]

Meech is not going anywhere. He can play both F and D. It's Lilja or Lebda who will be dumped.

Sure, Meech can play F or D.....I just didn't think he does it very well. He hasn't impressed me at all. He's expendable, and I would hope that he's moved along with Lebda.

Don't get me wrong, I like Lebda, but he was very prone to pinching at the wrong time. The only thing he's got is his speed, and while it comes in handy when he's trying to get bck into position, I'd really rather have Lilja on the blueline to help clear the front of the net. I think one of the reasons that our PK suffered was due to Lilja's absence.

Lilja used to be a whipping boy of mine because of his turnovers, but it looks as though he's addressed that and has become a very solid stay-at-home defenseman. It doesn't hurt that he's significantly bigger than Lebda, either. Lilja's only drawback is that he makes as much as Lebda & Meech combined.

[b.shanafan14 733]

Last year's team was one of the best we will probably ever see in the cap world.

I'm still banging my head over them not winning it... you just will not see a team like that very often anymore.

THIS... OVER AND OVER.

The Cup was ours to lose and we lost it. The cap and the Wings precedent of signing long-term is going to even kill free-agency on the large scale after this season. Look at all the long-term, low-cap deals being thrown around.

2009 Wings blew it in the Finals. Best team we're going to see for a long, LONG time.

EDIT: to OP's original question, our depth has taken a big hit, we need to trust in Kenny to stretch our remaining cap space for all its worth. Thank god this is the Detroit Red Wings and not the Pheonix Coyotes, hopefully we'll get someone cheapish.... trust Kenny.

Edited July 1, 2009 by b.shanafan14