Detroit Red Wings 2010 Roster

[TheOctopusKid 19]

This has been a interesting and injury-riddled season for the Wings - I can't recall in recent memory a team that has suffered such a series of unfortunate events that has led to the extended absence of so many key players. To lose roughly 200 goals from 2008 due to injury, free agency and still remain competitive speaks to the character and depth of this organization. I, for one, have been very proud to be a fan of this team.

However, with all of this adversity - most certainly some good has come from it. The Wings for years have been a veteran laden team that allowed for very little opportunity for young and promising prospects to shine at the NHL level. This season, we have seen a flurry of call ups, mid season pick ups and such. This has exposed the weaknesses of some prospects as they were called upon to fill roles they weren't ready for (Leino) and allowed others to impress and shine that normally otherwise wouldn't have been considered as a valuable contributor (Eaves, Janik, Ritola) Wings will enter into the 2010 season with some difficult roster choices to make.

The Wings are in a rather advantageous position next year as they have only a handful of roster spots under contract and a generous amount of cap space in which to fill those positions. Let's review the players that currently are under contract who are on the regular roster -

FORWARDS

Datsyuk

Zetterberg

Franzen

Filppula

Cleary

Draper

Leino

DEFENSE

Rafalski

Stuart

Kronwall

Ericsson

GOAL

Osgood

Howard

These 13 players represent an overall cap commitment of (approx) $40.6M. That leaves the Red Wings roughly $19M or so to field the additional 10 spots on their regular roster. I cannot remember the last time the Red Wings were in a position like this where there was so much uncertainty regarding their regulars and have the appropriate cap space. So the question begs - where exactly do they go from here given the play of their young prospects and what will be available in the free agent market?

Let's make a few simple assumptions at this point that the Red Wings will almost certainly do either during the season or top priorities in the off season.

1) Sign Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader to contract extensions

This will be a top priority for Ken Holland going forward and will be quickly addressed without long negotiations. Helm and Abdelkader have proven themselves to be young, promising role players who give the Wings much needed aggressive forechecking, energy, grit and total effort. They will be superb complementary players going forward and alleviate the loss of Maltby and eventually Draper. These two will sign similar contracts roughly around Draper's salary level.

Effective Cap Hit: $2M Each

2) Resign Patrick Eaves

Although this seems like a stretch at the moment - it runs a striking parallel to Dan Cleary's situation. Eaves was a highly-touted draft pick to the Senators who was asked to be a prolific scorer. Despite early success, he could not seem to find an offensive grove, deemed a unfulfilled bust and was traded and then subsequently released. During this time, Eaves adopted a new more aggressive mentality and went from potential goal scorer to a 'grit and hustle' defensive forward and has seemed to find his stride. Babcock is impressed with his professionalism, maturity, and dedication and it has shown by his increased responsibility from the beginning of the season. What makes Eaves even more valuable, is his potential upside as a scorer. Blessed with a great set of hockey skills (much like Cleary), as he continues to gain confidence and familiarity with his role responsibilities, he could develop a more mature offensive game to complement his defensive play (much like Cleary). A favorite of Jim Nill, expect a contract extension around 2 years for $2M.

Effective Cap Hit: $1M

3) Resign Tomas Holmstrom

Although there will be some debate regarding this move, Holmstrom has made no indication that he is tired of playing or has any plans of retiring. He is still an effective player, albeit not at the level of three years ago, and provides the Wings with a much needed presence in front of the net. He will still have top two line skills and be a fixture on the Wings powerplay due to his ability to aggravate goaltenders with his crease presence. Expect a pay reduction though as he is rounded the bend on his final years. 2 years, $3M.

Effective Cap Hit: $1.5M

4) Assign Jakub Kindl to the Wings

Jakub Kindl has been the key prospect for the Wings for the last 3 years. He has played for the AHL Griffins for the last 5 years on and off and is poised for the move to NHL. Almost making the roster out of camp the last two seasons, Kindl's promotion is all but assured at this point and will fulfill 6-7th defense responsibilities as he adjusts to the higher level of competition. Kindl is under contract at 800k till 2013.

Effective Cap Hit: 800k

This leaves the Wings with the following -

Zetterburg

Datsyuk

Franzen

Filppula

Cleary

Holmstrom

Helm

Adelkader

Eaves

Draper

Leino

Raflaski

Kronwall

Stuart

Ericsson

Kindl

Osgood

Howard

Assuming the Wings dress 14 Forwards, 7 Defense, 2 Goaltenders - that leaves them with 3 potential spots for Forwards and 2 for Defense and roughly $12M to fill those holes.

What the Wings do from here is entirely contigent upon whether or not Lidstrom retires. Best case, Lidstrom resigns with the Red Wings for an additional year at a reduced cost of $5M a season. If Listrom retires, look for the Red Wings to use that $5M to pursue a big time free agent to fill the void left by their Captain in the top 2 pairing.

4a) Resign Lidstrom to 1-year, $5M

Effective Cap Hit: $5M

IF Listrom retires, the Wings will be forced to find a suitable replacement on the top line to fill in for him. They do have the option of moving Jonathan Ericsson to that position, and even if they do make that choice, I would imagine the Wings would still chase a big name free agent defensemen to give them defensive depth. The Wings have always placed a premium on intelligent, mobile defenseman as their offense is built around the initial pass and puck control at the offensive blue line. Detroit has often spent considerably more salary at defense than offense. I don't suspect that the Wings would allow Ericsson to move to the top pairing as he is still rather young in his development and they like to build them slowly. As much potential as Jonathan has shown, he's is not at the level of a 25min a night, 50+ point production defenseman.

Potential Replacement IF Lidstrom were to Retire

4b) Paul Martin

Excluding Lidstrom, Neidermayer, and Gonchar - Martin remains as the only elite free agent defenseman under 30 years old. Martin fits the Red Wings mold to a T as he excels as a two-way defenseman who is extremely mobile, large in frame, and is a adept passer. He is more than capable of playing large 1-pair minutes and is coming into his prime at the right time (28 years old). What makes this more intriguing beyond his physical skills, ability and poise is the situation. Martin has been hurt this season (broken arm) and the Devils have once again relied upon a young corp of prospects. The group has handled themsleves admirably and thus making Martin's $4.5M dollar salary very expensive to the ever frugal Lou Lamoriello. Additionally, Paul Martin and Brian Raflaski have played successfully together 2005. This would create a top defensive pairing for the Wings with Rafalski/Martin and allow Ericsson time to develop as Rafalski is set to retire in two years - leaving room for Ericsson to step to the top pair with Martin just as he hits his prime.

All of this makes Martin a very natural fit for the Red Wings as he brings a very capable, experienced skill set to a prior defensive partner at a reasonable cost. I imagine a 5yr, $25M dollar contract would be more than suitable.

Effective Cap Hit: $5M

Following that move, the Wings are left with 3 Forwards, 1 Defense with $7M to address their needs.

5) Assign Mattias Ritola to the Detroit Red Wings and extended contract 3 year, $1.5M

It's time for Ritola to step up and play. Impressed with his particular skill set, Babcock surprisingly called up Ritola recently and he performed admirably. Although he would play sparse minutes as a 4th line role player, he would take the time to slowly develop his defensive accumen and hopefully develop in a similiar manner as Franzen did from checking forward to a potential 2nd line scorer. He would benefit greatly from the additional time spent with the veteren players as he continues to learn how to play "the right way" and commit himself to competing hard every day.

Effective Cap Hit: 500k

6) Resign

Although Lebda will never be exceptional or have the potential to be a top flight defenseman, he is very familiar with the Red Wings system and has logged a considerable amount of minutes over the last two years in both the regular season and the playoffs. A bargain and a product of Detroit system, he provides much needed depth and his quickness and offense would complement Ericsson well.

Effective Cap Hit: $1M

That leaves 2 Forward Positions available with approx. $5.5M in cap space. Lets review the roster as it comprised (and assume Lidstrom retires).

FORWARDS

Zetterberg

Datsyuk

Franzen

Filppula

Cleary

Holmstrom

Draper

Leino

Helm

Abdelkader

Eaves

Ritola

DEFENSE

Martin

Rafalski

Kronwall

Stuart

Ericsson

Lebda

Kindl

GOAL

Osgood

Howard

So after looking at this roster, it is apparent that the Wings are missing scoring depth - a clear goal scorer that adds an additional element of secondary scoring of 20+ goals. From the available free agents, the best possible option going forward would be to add Alexander Frolov of the LA Kings who would be a UFA going into the summer.

7) Sign Alexander Frolov

Alexander Frolov is a young, versatile two-way forward who is capable of playing both left and right wing and has penchant for scoring. In addition to his natural goal scoring, he is a defensively responsible player with excellent speed and passing ability. He tends to be more a “goal-scoring†and less of a playmaker and would excel as a finisher for a natural playmaker like Datsyuk. A reasonable cost for him would be a 4 year, $22M contract.

Effective Cap Hit: $4.5M

Following these particular moves - the Red Wings would have 22 dressed, with an effective cap cushion of around $1M to either sign a role player (gritty defensive forward, veteran leadership, or enforcer) or use as space to for call ups from the AHL.

The potential lines of the Red Wings would be

Frolov - Datsyuk - Holmstrom

Franzen - Zetterberg - Cleary

Helm - Filppula - Leino

Draper - Abdelkader - Eaves/Ritola

Martin/Rafalski

Kronwall/Stuart

Ericsson/Lebda/Kindl

Osgood

Howard

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Well the good news is that there's no way Abdelkader or Helm end up costing around 2 million each

Helm's a great young player but his top potential is still as a 3rd line player. It would be tough for his agent to parlay that into 2 million a year at this point.

Abdelkader's best chance at a payday was to show management that his scoring would translate to the NHL level and that he'd continue to progress into a future 2nd line player. Unfortunately his offensive upside didn't really show much this season so far, with Helm outshining him in that department. His best chance for a payday would've been to play another season in GR and put strong numbers up there. He was banking on getting paid for potential, and this season hasn't really helped him in that department. He'll have to settle for a cheap contract and prove himself in time for the next one.

[Shaman 713]

Well the good news is that there's no way Abdelkader or Helm end up costing around 2 million each

Helm's a great young player but his top potential is still as a 3rd line player. It would be tough for his agent to parlay that into 2 million a year at this point.

Abdelkader's best chance at a payday was to show management that his scoring would translate to the NHL level and that he'd continue to progress into a future 2nd line player. Unfortunately his offensive upside didn't really show much this season so far, with Helm outshining him in that department. His best chance for a payday would've been to play another season in GR and put strong numbers up there. He was banking on getting paid for potential, and this season hasn't really helped him in that department. He'll have to settle for a cheap contract and prove himself in time for the next one.

Also Lids will not come back for 5 million, im hoping 3.5-4 so thats more room too we can hope.

[Finnish Wing 110]

Frolov-Datsyuk-Cleary

Zetterberg-Filppula-Franzen

Abdelkader-Helm-Eaves

Miller-Draper-TOUGHGUY

+ Leino, "Maltby"

Lidstrom-Kronwall

Stuart-Rafalski

Kindl-Ericsson

+ Meech/Janik

Howard

Osgood

Lidstrom will play for one more year and after that we'll get Doughty.

[Echolalia 2,961]

There was a similar thread about a month ago, and I posted this in it back then:

This question is much more interesting now than it was three months ago. We have had a great deal of young talent come in and particularly our bottom 6 has been a huge reason why the Wings are where they are in the standings. So who gets dropped from the lineup?

These are highly tentative lines just to show what gaps we need to fill (ie these guys below are signed through next year):

Dats Z Homer

Franzen Fil _____

Cleary ____ Leino

Draper ____ ____

_____ Rafalski

Stuart Kronwall

Ericsson _____

Osgood/Howard

for a caphit of 41.58M and about 15.2M to work with.

From what I've gathered, its seems more likely that Lids will be returning than not. I don't expect him to be the highest paid player on the team if he returns, but its anyone's guess as to what he'll get paid. I'm hoping blindly for a caphit of 3.75M with a 5M+2.5M two-year contract, but Lids might want to take it one year at a time. That leaves Holland with a top 6 role and three bottom 6 roles to fill, as well as a bottom 6 defensman. I assume Abby and Helm will take two of the bottom six spots for somewhere around 1M each (?), maybe a little higher if they get multiyear deals, which might be more beneficial in the long run, pending their development. And I hope Eaves sticks around to fill out that last bottom 6 role; I've liked what he's done so far, and feel he can still bring his game up to another level given enough time. If he does return, I doubt it would be for league min again, but I don't see it being more than 1.M. So that takes care of about 8M worth of space and that leaves us with a second liner and a bottom six defensman that still needs to be acquired. I'm still not sold on Kindl (is he out of minor league options?), and I think this might be Meech's last year with the Wings. I have no clue whether Lebda will be around after this year. Ideally I hope not, but he is cheap and knows the Wings' system well so Holland might want to have him stick around. Its most likely going to be cheaper to have Lebda or Kindl here than bring someone in from outside, but again this is all speculation. Anyway, that gives us between 6 and 7M for a second line option, or we can choose to not sign one of the above and have that money for two roles to be filled for more depth (most likely a forward, though, because again, I expect Lids to return and I don't think Holland will be pushing to invest a great deal on a top 4 defensman at this point (unless Lids is retiring), especially because we seem to be improving defensively this year with the roster we have).

Edited January 8, 2010 by Echolalia

[Miller Brew 0]

Umm... Where's Bertuzzi?

[Echolalia 2,961]

Umm... Where's Bertuzzi?

I don't know if this is aimed at my post or the OP or both, but Bert is a free agent next year so I didn't refer to his name specifically in my post. Pretty much I was getting to the conclusion that if we are thrifty and look to our current roster/Griffins for bottom 6 players, we could potentially have up to 6M for a second liner. Whether you want Bert as that second liner in combo with some more highly skilled bottom 6 than Abby Helm Eaves is up to you (or rather, Holland).

[PROBIE4PREZ 58]

yah you best believe Bert will be back .. Also for the right price Jwilly will be signed again ..

Alexander Frlov takes nights off and is russian .. boo we need some N/A big bodies

[Drake_Marcus 890]

There was a similar thread about a month ago, and I posted this in it back then:

This question is much more interesting now than it was three months ago. We have had a great deal of young talent come in and particularly our bottom 6 has been a huge reason why the Wings are where they are in the standings. So who gets dropped from the lineup?

These are highly tentative lines just to show what gaps we need to fill (ie these guys below are signed through next year):

Dats Z Homer

Franzen Fil _____

Cleary ____ Leino

Draper ____ ____

_____ Rafalski

Stuart Kronwall

Ericsson _____

Osgood/Howard

for a caphit of 41.58M and about 15.2M to work with.

From what I've gathered, its seems more likely that Lids will be returning than not. I don't expect him to be the highest paid player on the team if he returns, but its anyone's guess as to what he'll get paid. I'm hoping blindly for a caphit of 3.75M with a 5M+2.5M two-year contract, but Lids might want to take it one year at a time. That leaves Holland with a top 6 role and three bottom 6 roles to fill, as well as a bottom 6 defensman. I assume Abby and Helm will take two of the bottom six spots for somewhere around 1M each (?), maybe a little higher if they get multiyear deals, which might be more beneficial in the long run, pending their development. And I hope Eaves sticks around to fill out that last bottom 6 role; I've liked what he's done so far, and feel he can still bring his game up to another level given enough time. If he does return, I doubt it would be for league min again, but I don't see it being more than 1.M. So that takes care of about 8M worth of space and that leaves us with a second liner and a bottom six defensman that still needs to be acquired. I'm still not sold on Kindl (is he out of minor league options?), and I think this might be Meech's last year with the Wings. I have no clue whether Lebda will be around after this year. Ideally I hope not, but he is cheap and knows the Wings' system well so Holland might want to have him stick around. Its most likely going to be cheaper to have Lebda or Kindl here than bring someone in from outside, but again this is all speculation. Anyway, that gives us between 6 and 7M for a second line option, or we can choose to not sign one of the above and have that money for two roles to be filled for more depth (most likely a forward, though, because again, I expect Lids to return and I don't think Holland will be pushing to invest a great deal on a top 4 defensman at this point (unless Lids is retiring), especially because we seem to be improving defensively this year with the roster we have).

Kindl is indeed out of minor league options after this season, as is Ritola if I remember correctly. Also, Helm is officially a full time Wing... there's no way in hell he goes back to GR next season and there's also no way he isn't re-signed. Abdelkader still looks like he needs AHL seasoning so he can get his scoring game back, but he could go either way, so we can leave him off the definite list for now.

So your lines now look like this:

Dats Z Homer

Franzen Fil _____

Cleary Helm Leino

Draper ____ Ritola

_____ Rafalski

Stuart Kronwall

Ericsson Kindl

Osgood/Howard

[Drake_Marcus 890]

yah you best believe Bert will be back .. Also for the right price Jwilly will be signed again ..

Alexander Frlov takes nights off and is russian .. boo we need some N/A big bodies

Woopty god damn do.

[mmamolo 287]

Although I doubt some of the prices in the OP will happen he does make some good points. However, in my mind there is no way the Wings don't bring back Bertuzzi and Eaves. I think both have not only played above expectations but have earned their keep and will be brought back at the appropriate prices.

The way I see it is we almost have a log jam up front. I havent heard much on what Maltby plans to do but he is the only guy I could see retiring. I think Ritola is a full time Wing next year and I see the Wings wanting to keep all of Helm, Abdelkader, Eaves, Miller and Leino. Granted, ABdelkader may spend some more time in GR - but I'm not even sold on that.

I also do not see Lidstrom retiring. I think he sticks around and we end up using our cap space to fill out our D and use Kindl as a who either gets playing time due to injuries or splits time with Ericsson depending on his development.

For I dont see Williams coming back. I just don't particularly see the need. I think they'd go after a differnt top 6 forward if anything.

Bertuzzi - Datsyuk - Holmstrom

Franzen - Zetterberg - Cleary/New Signing

Cleary/New Signing - Filppula - Leino/Miller/Eaves

Draper - Helm - Eaves/Miller/Leino