Red Wings looking to fill holes, prevent others from forming
By Dave Waddell –
As the Detroit Red Wings mull over the moves they hope will help them address last season’s shortcomings, they’ve first had to put the brakes on other NHL clubs trying to use them as a resource to solve their own issues.
Having produced two NHL head coaches (San Jose’s Todd McLellan, Ottawa’s Paul MacLean) and two general managers (Tampa Bay’s Steve Yzerman, Dallas’ Jim Nill) for the opposition since the 2008-09 season, Wings’ head coach Mike Babcock and Grand Rapids bench boss Jeff Blashill are now having their names bandied about as potential solutions in several cities.
In addition, key scouts Joe McDonnell and Mark Leach also bolted with Nill before the Wings re-signed their longtime bird dogs.
It’s been an exodus of talent that has prompted Detroit general manager Ken Holland to bluntly announce the Wings are no longer interested in being the training ground for the rest of the NHL while the club is in the midst of its own ambitious rebuild.
Holland has refused to give any club permission to talk to Blashill – who has a year left on his deal in Grand Rapids – and announced he intends to re-sign Babcock.
Babcock again tried to put out the fires surrounding his future recently by telling Yahoo.com even if he wasn’t coaching the Wings this season he wouldn’t coach anywhere for the year with his daughter entering her senior year at high school in the Detroit area.
“I like it here,” Babcock told Yahoo.com. “I’ve got no issues with being here. Ken Holland’s a good man. I like working for the Ilitches. That’s it.”
While the Wings are insistent their front office and head coaches won’t change, the rest can’t be said of the rest of Detroit playing roster.
The old guard is changing.
Of the Wings unrestricted free agents, only winger Daniel Alfredsson and back-up goalie Jonas Gustavsson are of any interest to Holland.
Alfredsson led Detroit in scoring with 18 goals and 49 points, but was plagued by back issues. He may well retire instead.
Gustavsson could return but only under the right circumstances. The Wings liked his season, but are wary of his tendency to pick up injuries.
A one-year deal is likely all the Wings offer ‘The Monster.’ Complicating this equation is Grand Rapids’ goalie Petr Mrazek.
Mrazek has the look of something special and his performances during his NHL call-ups haven’t done anything to dispel that notion. He’ll likely play one more year in the AHL, but when he does come up, don’t be surprised if he quickly pushes incumbent Jimmy Howard out of the net as the starter.
Babcock loves this kid for his fierce competitiveness and his ability to win. Howard is a solid NHL netminder, but doesn’t have the aura of Mrazek.
The other UFAs – Dan Cleary, Todd Bertuzzi and Mikael Samuelsson, David Legwand and most likely Kyle Quincey – will be moving on.
Most because of age or ineffectiveness, but in the case of Legwand and Quincey, the Wings can find cheaper replacements and need to create openings for their young talent.
Detroit will have in the neighborhood of $20 million in cap space to find those replacements. However, many of those new faces will be home grown.
It took a little over half a season for Babcock to get over his reluctance to fully embrace the youth movement, knowing kids and the post-season aren’t a good mix, but the reality is the kids are now the best option.
Tomas Jurco, Gustav Nyquist, Riley Sheahan, Tomas Tatar, Danny DeKeyser, Brendan Smith and Luke Glendening are now key pieces. Grand Rapids stars Teemu Pulkkinen, Xavier Ouellet, Alexei Marchenko and Ryan Sproul soon will be.
However, to smooth the transition the Wings will have to add a top-four defenseman and perhaps another solid D-man with experience. If Alfredsson retires and with the injured Stephen Weiss still a question mark, an experienced offensive threat will also be required.
Unfortunately for the Wings, it’s not a banner year for unrestricted free agents.
On the backend, Pittsburgh’s Matt Niskanen and San Jose’s Dan Boyle seem the prime catches. However, the 27-year-old Niskanen looks like he’ll be ridiculously over-priced in a thin market. Boyle, though 37, is still a quality puck mover and offensive threat. If the veteran can be had on a two-year deal, the Wings might be interested.
Among the other defensemen also scheduled to become available are Pittsburgh’s Brooks Orpik, Los Angeles’s Willie Mitchell, Montreal’s Andrei Markov and Carolina’s Joni Pitkanen.
The oft-injured Pitkanen isn’t a favorite of Wings’ management and Markov isn’t leaving Montreal anytime soon furthering narrowing the Wings’ free-agency options.
Detroit also doesn’t want to get too tied up in long, expensive contracts for defensemen when they have an excellent collection of young blue-liners themselves very near being ready for the NHL.
The Wings might be more successful in adding some decent help up front.
Marian Gaborik, Matt Moulson, Thomas Vanek, Paul Stastny, Mike Cammalleri, Jarome Iginla, Ales Hemsky, Milan Michalek and Ryan Callahan headline the offensive stars available.
In addition to the Wings’ young forwards knocking on the door, there is the intriguing Major Junior star Anthony Mantha. who has scored 81 goals in 81 games so far this season and has dominated at that level.
He’ll likely start in Grand Rapids next fall, but the Wings have made it clear he’ll get a look in training camp to make the big club because of his 6-foot-5 frame, speed and lethal finishing ability.
“We’ve never had a player like that,” Babcock told reporters in Quebec during a scouting trip to see Mantha earlier this month. “Does that speed things up? I don’t know.”
Free agency and the farm team isn’t the only route Holland will need to explore.
The trade market has become increasingly active leading into the NHL’s draft day in June and the rumblings are there are several teams looking to explore significant changes.
It’s been a long time since the Wings were involved in a blockbuster trade. However, with the farm system restocked and a veteran like Johan Franzen perhaps in play, the Wings are at least in a position to make a move.
Such a trade may be the best route to land that offensive-oriented defenseman, such as Alex Edler or Christian Erhoff, the Wings clearly need.