The 2009-10 Detroit Red Wings roster

July 8, 12:31 AMDetroit Red Wings ExaminerMike Mouat

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Will the 2009-10 Red Wings team photo be similar to this one?

We are well in to the summer and free agency in the NHL and  the Detroit Red Wings roster for 2009-10 is nearly settled.

(Ed. note: This story was updated on August 8th. Please click: Re-examining the Detroit Red Wings 2009-10 roster, for the latest information)

Gone from the 2008-09 team that came within one goal of winning the Stanley Cup are backup goalie Ty Conklin (St. Louis), defenseman Chris Chelios (unsigned) and forwards Marian Hossa (Chicago), Mikael Samuelsson (Vancouver) and Tomas Kopecky (Chicago).

Their departure clears the way for forwards Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Ville Leino, defenseman Jonathan Ericsson and goaltender Jimmy Howard. Howard is the only one of this group that has not been impressive in his auditions in Detroit.

Leino is the latest player to secure his spot in the roster agreeing to a two-year, cap friendly deal of $1.6-million ($800K cap hit). In just 13 games with Detroit last season Leino scored five goals and four assists for nine points and will likely land on the third line (see the chart below).

Restricted free agent Jiri Hudler remains the only unsigned player that will be on the Red Wings next season, and fills the vacancy on left wing on the second line.

Last season Hudler earned $1.15-million while setting career highs in goals (23) and points (57). The Red Wings have reportedly offered a contract that has an average salary of $2.5-million a season. Hudler has filed for salary arbitration which effectively takes him off the market as other teams cannot make an offer to him.

It is noteworthy that Ken Holland has never gone to an arbitration hearing since becoming the Red Wings general manager in 1997, and the last time Detroit has proceeded to an arbitration hearing with a player was in 1995 with Ray Sheppard.

As per the chart below, Ken Holland will have some roster shuffling to do once Hudler is signed in order to get under the salary cap of $56.8-million, and that will likely involve moving a defenseman where the Red Wings are a bit deeper and would prefer to carry seven players as opposed to the eight listed below.

Here are projected line combinations, defense pairings and goaltenders with each players salary cap figure (in $-millions).

As per the the roster above the Red Wings have $55.12-million committed against the cap of $56.8-million and have $1.68-million available for Hudler. Which defenseman is traded will depend on how much more than that amount Hudler and the Red Wings agree on.

Lilja is the most likely to be traded because of his cap figure, however, he ended the season on injured reserve suffering from concussion like symptoms caused by a bleeding vein in his brain. Should he still be unable to play at the beginning of the season the Red Wings could put him on long-term injured reserve which would take his contract off the books and create some cap relief for the Red Wings.

Further additions by Detroit are unlikely as, similar to last year, it would require moving a player from the current roster for equal cap dollars.

In the next few weeks I will be profiling each player on the roster in a comprehensive scouting report. Bookmark this page as I will link the scouting reports to the players names for easy access.  

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Re-examining the Red Wings 2009-10 roster

Scouting reports

• Dan Cleary  Pavel Datsyuk  Kris Draper  Patrick Eaves  Jonathan Ericsson  Valtteri Filppula  Johan Franzen  Darren Helm  Tomas Holmstrom  Niklas Kronwall   Brett Lebda   Ville Leino  Nicklas Lidstrom  Andreas Lilja  Kirk Maltby  Derek Meech  Chris Osgood  Brian Rafalski  Brad Stuart  Jason Williams  Henrik Zetterberg