2009-10 NHL preview: Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings have been one of the finest sports organizations in any sport over the past twenty years. It is really too bad that the NHL salary cap finally caught up to them. In previous years Wings’ owner Mike Illitch would have cut check to Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelson, Jiri Hudler, and Tomas Kopecky. However this year he could not, and the Wings had to let all four players go. After signing both Henrick Zetterberg and Johan Franzen to very cap friendly long term deal the Wings just didn’t have enough cap space to make a big splash on the free agent market.

However no one should cry for the Wings, General Manger Ken Holland is one of the best sports executives out there, and he has a first class front office that can deal with anything. Even the NHL Salary Cap will be figured out by this office and the Wings will remain an elite NHL team.

Drafting and developing players is as important in Detroit as point’s goals and assists are in other cities. This team has a knack for finding talent in the later rounds of the NHL draft and then Holland ships them to the minor leagues until he feels they are ready to make an impact on his team.

This year two late round picks; Jonathan Ericsson and Darren Helm are set to contribute to the Wigs success. Ericsson was the final pick of the 2003 draft, and Helm was a fifth round pick. Both will get the chance to play major roles on the 2010 version of the Red Wings.

Additions- RW Todd Bertuzzi, RW Patrick Eaves, D Doug Janik, C Kris Newberry, and C Jason Williams

Subtractions- G Ty Conklin, RW Darren Haydar, RW Marian Hossa, C Jiri Hudler, C Tomas Kopecky, and RW Mikael Samuelson