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.