2010/11 Roster... Set??

With the recent additions of two veterans, Mike Modano and Ruslan Salei to the team, the roster appears to be almost set -- with Justin Abdelkader's imminent signing the only paperwork yet to be completed by Ken Holland. So this is the current cap picture:

**In order of cap hit**
Forwards:
(14) Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Filppula, Hudler, Cleary, Bertuzzi, Holmstrom, Modano, Draper, Helm, Eaves, Miller, Ritola -- $35.387m

Defense:
(8) Lidstrom, Rafalski, Stuart, Kronwall, Salei, Ericsson, Kindl, Meech -- $22.333m

Goaltending:
(2) Osgood, Howard -- $2.133m

When taking off the $850k of bonuses included in these totals, Detroit has just over $345k to sign Justin Abdelkader.

This shouldn't be a concern to Abby because Ken Holland has already stated that the team will enter the 2010/11 season with a roster of 14 forwards, 7 defensemen and 2 goalies. This means two have gotta go, so who will they be?

Out of 15 forwards, the bottom 4 seem to be Miller, Draper, Abdelkader and Ritola. With the coveted talent of young Abdelkader and the no-trade status of Draper, one of Miller or Ritola will probably be the odd man out.

For me, it's just way too difficult to guess who might have the better trade value or who we might suffer least from letting walk. With Miller, we know what we have and that he can play in the NHL. Ritola on the other hand, has great potential but is still yet to prove he can perform at the highest level. Detroit has had to let these types go in recent times and much to the chagrin of the Detroit-faithful, the results weren't in the Wings favor.

A few seasons ago Ken Holland made the tough decision to waive the talented but largely disappointing Kyle Quincey, only to watch him excel in L.A. and Colorado. Then just last season, the even more talented and disappointing Ville Leino needed to be shipped to Philadelphia, for Ole-Kristian Tollefsen -- who may never actually play an NHL game in the Winged Wheel. The Flyers then proceeded to make the Stanley Cup Finals with help from Leino's 21 points in 19 games.

With these two unfortunate transactions fresh in the mind of Kenny Holland, I would say Drew Miller would be slightly more likely to be the one to leave Motown... as tough as it is to say.

To me, defense is a little simpler -- so long, Derek Meech.

So with all that mind, if Meech and Miller are to go, with Abdelkader signing for $900k (his actually cap hit will definitely be in that vicinity) the Wings sit at about $600k under the cap and ready for the 2011.

Red Wings Make Qualifying Offers to Nine Players

According to Ansar Khan, the Detroit Red Wings have made qualifying offers to nine restricted free agents -- five regulars at the big club and four Griffins. From mlive:

The Detroit Red Wings made qualifying offers to nine players before Monday’s deadline, retaining their rights when they become restricted free agents Thursday.

In addition to making qualifying offers, as expected, to Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Patrick Eaves, Drew Miller and Derek Meech, the Red Wings also qualified defensemen Sergei Kolosov and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, forward Jamie Tardif and goaltender Daniel Larsson.

The article also notes that this means the Red Wings have decided to allow Evan McGrath and Johan Ryno to leave as unrestricted free agents.

For Tolefsson and Larsson, the offers are just to retain the rights to the players as both are headed to Europe to continue their careers. The others are all likely to be re-signed and would probably take up around $3.5m+ cap space; which would leave $1.7m for further signings and/or trades.

Bertuzzi Offered Two-Year Deal

According to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, Ken Holland has made an offer to unrestricted free agent Todd Bertuzzi for a two-year contract as well as making qualifying offers to the Wings restricted free agents:

The Wings have offered a two-year deal to unrestricted free-agent forward Todd Bertuzzi. They also have extended qualifying offers to all five of their restricted free agents: forwards Patrick Eaves, Drew Miller, Justin Abdelkader and Darren Helm and defenseman Derek Meech. There have been some preliminary talks with the agents for Eaves and Miller. Eaves, Miller and Meech all have arbitration rights.

Bertuzzi's deal is expected to be a small discount to last season's 1-year/$1.5m agreement in light of the added security of a multi-year deal -- one that Bertuzzi hasn't has since Brian Burke and the Anaheim Ducks bought him out of the second and final year of his 2-year contract in 2008. Any financial details of the offer are, at this stage, just speculation and the Bertuzzi's agent is still yet to confim an agreement.

Them Pesky Oils; Red Wings 5, Oilers 4 Recap

It was a game of two halves, the first going to Detroit and the second going the Oilers way in a game that was much closer than it should've been.

The Red Wings blew a 4-goal lead they held late in the second period, but two points is two points because the Wings took a 5-4 decision and drew within a point of the Nashville Predators for fifth in the Conference, with 2 games in hand.

Detroit dominated the early going outshooting the Oilers 16-7 in the first frame and opening up a 3-goal lead after one period.

The Wings continued to dominate the second period with innumberable great scoring chances but Oilers goalie, Jeff Deslauriers stood tall, holding for his team a minor chance to get back into the game. But with under 4 minutes to go in the period whilst on the powerplay, Johan Franzen netted his tenth of the season to seemingly put the game out of reach for Edmonton.

Less than 30 seconds later, the game reached a turning point as Valtteri Filppula was sent to the box. The Oilers needed only 4 seconds of that powerplay to get on the board and gain some momentum, and gain momentum they did.

Less than a minute later Mike Comrie cut the lead to two, on a soft goal by Jimmy Howard's standards.

The third period also went the Oilers way. Barely half way through the Red Wings had completely blown their 4 goal lead on goals from Zack Stortini and Tom Gilbert. Luckily, the Wings were able to steady the ship and Brad Stuart tipped the puck by Deslauriers for the perhaps undeserved win.

Undeserved or not, a win is a win, and good teams often get 2 points from games they shouldn't.

For Detroit, Andreas Lilja, Drew Miller, Nik Kronwall, Johan Franzen and Brad Stuart scored. Whilst Comrie, Stortini and two from Tom Gilbert fileld the scoreboard for Edmonton.

WOW Factor
The tide seemed to turn and turn quickly as soon as Filppula took his penalty and the Oilers scored off the draw. The Wings were their own worst enemy as they became almost fatally complacent with the 4-goal cushion. It wasn't until the game was tied that Detroit really applied more offensive pressure to Edmonton.

Special Teams
The Red Wings powerplay was very strong but scored once from three chances thanks to some acrobatic stops from Deslauriers. The Oilers scored 4 seconds into their 2nd PP of the game but couldn't muster much on their other chances going 1/4 for the game.

In net
Jimmy Howard stopped 22 of 26 shots for Detroit.
Jeff Deslauriers stopped 39 of 44 for Edmonton.

Up Next...
Detroit continues its 3-game home stand on Thursday against Columbus followed by a Saturday afternoon showdown against the 5th-placed Predators (that I'll be attending WOO!!)

Wings Top Sabres in OT

Brian Rafalski continued the Red Wings 9-game powerplay goal scoring streak, at a most appropriate time, overtime to be exact.

With 47 seconds remaining in a Tyler Myers delay of game penalty to start OT, it took only 31 of them before Rafalski drove in a Lidstrom pass with a one-timer from the top of the left circle to net the overtime winner and grab the all-important two points for the Red Wings.

The Wings were again off to a great start against the Sabres, as they took 2-0 lead only 3:15 into the game on the back of some Datsyukian magic and a great individual effort from Patrick Eaves. Vezina-favorite, Ryan Miller steadied the ship though, as the Sabres slowly battled back to take a 2-2 tie heading into the final frame thanks to two Jochen Hecht goals. The teams were unable to decide it in the third period needing overtime to decide the victor.

For Lindy Ruff's Sabres, a point is better than nothing as it gives them a 3 point advantage with 2 games in hand on the Ottawa Senators who were blown out in Vancouver later last night, 5-1.

For the Wings, the extra point was much more needed, giving them a one point lead of the hot Calgary Flames, who play their catch-up game tonight, also in Vancouver. The Wings are also within a point of the Predators with the same games played.

Jimmy Howard stopped 24 of 26 shots with Michigan-native, Ryan Miller stopped all but three of the 37 Detroit shots.

The Wings were 1/4 on the PP whilst killing off all three Sabres man-advantages extending their successful penalty killing streak to 5 games.

The Red Wings meet Calgary in Alberta on Monday night in a pivotal Western conference tilt, to begin their 3-game Western Canada road trip.

Memorable Night Ahead for Millers; Buffalo @ Detroit

Red Wing, Drew Miller and Sabres' goalie, Ryan will meet for the third time in their NHL careers, but tonight will mark their first ever meeting in Detroit, the hometown of the Miller family.

“It’s always been a fun experience playing against Drew; it hasn’t happened often in our careers,” older brother, Ryan said.

Drew, who scored Thursday against the Wild, hopes to find the net for the first time against his silver-medallist, Olympic-MVP brother but says it's not going to be easy and never was, even as a kid.

A win over the Sabres would get the Red Wings into 8th spot in the Western conference, with Calgary set to meet Vancouver Sunday night to claim that spot back. A loss could prove to be very costly with Nashville and Calgary showing no signs of making the chase an easy one, for the Red Wings. Calgary rides a 4-game winning streak -- one of them in Detroit, and Nashville knocked off Anaheim in SoCal last night, 1-0; all but putting the Ducks out of the playoff picture.

Early in the season, the Wings visited Buffalo in what turned out to be a disaster for the boys in Red, as they were dismantled 6-2.

Now the Wings seek consistency, looking to build a playoff-clinching win-streak beginning Thursday against the Wild.

Jimmy Howard stopped 21 of 22 shots in that win and will make his 15th consecutive start tonight to face home-coming Ryan Miller.

Scary Pairs:

Datsyuk & Holmstrom:

5v5 TOI - 506.2 min, HOOK-UPS - 9, MIN/HU - 43:00, +10

Cleary & Filppula:

5v5 TOI - 233 min, HOOK-UPS - 8, MIN/HU - 37:30, +1