2009-10 NHL Season Preview: Detroit Red Wings
by James Mirtle on Sep 21, 2009 5:00 PM CDT
19 comments
Who's in: Todd Bertuzzi, Andy Delmore, Patrick Eaves, Doug Janik, Jason Williams
Who's out: Chris Chelios, Ty Conklin, Marian Hossa, Jiri Hudler, Tomas Kopecky, Darren McCarty, Mikael Samuelsson
Outlook: No team took more hits as a result of the salary cap staying flat than the Red Wings this summer.
With Nick Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Brian Rafalski and Johan Franzen eating up more than $30-million (53 per cent) of the team's cap space, GM Ken Holland had to watch as Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Conklin, Jiri Hudler and Tomas Kopecky all headed elsewhere, and the Red Wings have only really added bargain basement options like Jason Williams, Todd Bertuzzi and Patrick Eaves as free agents.
What that will mean is a much larger role for many of the incumbents.
Expect Detroit to be a lower scoring team this season regardless of who draws the extra minutes, and there should also be plenty of room to contribute more for the likes of Valtteri Filppula, Dan Cleary, Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader and Ville Leino. Coach Mike Babcock will be relying on growth from within to keep the Wings fighting for the President's Trophy again, and that's not the worst bet given the returning cast he has to work with.
Where age and injuries could catch up to them, however, is in goal and on the backend, as 39-year-old Lidstrom showed a little bit of wear and tear in last year's postseason and will slip at some point from Norris Trophy contention. Osgood, meanwhile, can't afford a regular season like the last one, as he'll now have Jimmy Howard as insurance should he falter.
Detroit will still be a top 10 team, but their new Central Division challenger from the Windy City should give them a fight for the division crown.
X-factor: Ville Leino
For a more in-depth Red Wings preview, visit Winging It
For more NHL analysis, check out the McKeen's Hockey Yearbook
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you have to ask yourself
is this team better or worse than the team that won the cup 2 years ago? It’s on!
by detroitnick on Sep 21, 2009 8:48 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Worse
The 2009-10 Colorado Avalanche: Aiming for the Charity Point
Jibblescribbits: C'mon over and waste some time
by Jibblescribbits on Sep 21, 2009 9:43 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Out:
Chris Chelios
Aaron Downey
Dallas Drake
Matt Ellis
Mark Hartigan
Dominik Hasek
Jiri Hudler
Tomas Kopecky
Darren McCarty
Kyle Quincey
Mikael Samuelsson
In:
Justin Abdelkader
Todd Bertuzzi
Patrick Eaves
Ville Leino
Jason Williams
Jonathan Ericsson
Jimmy Howard
Bummer to lose:
Dallas Drake
Jiri Hudler
Mikael Samuelsson (I’ll give you this one – even swap with jason williams as far as I’m concerned)
*Kyle Quincey (didn’t have that much of an impact at the time)
so… Swap out Dallas Drake and Hudler, swap in everyone else… the 2007 and 2009 wings are actually pretty fairly matched, I’d have a hard time choosing between them.
by detroitnick on Sep 21, 2009 9:55 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Another two years of mileage on there, too. Players just start to fall off in their late 30s, and who knows which ones will be affected?
Blogging on hockey at fromtherink.com
by James Mirtle on Sep 21, 2009 10:59 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
You can’t mention the veterans getting older without mentioning the youth moving in. Maybe they’ll all be a bust, but I guess we won’t know until the end of the year
by detroitnick on Sep 22, 2009 12:48 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
From '07
Chelios and Lebda were both losses too. Both averaged between 16 and 17 minutes a game for the 07-08 Wings. Losing Hasek is rough too. He played 42 games, and played them fairly well. Losing Hudler hurts, and same with limited Dallas Drake.
The 2009-10 Colorado Avalanche: Aiming for the Charity Point
Jibblescribbits: C'mon over and waste some time
by Jibblescribbits on Sep 22, 2009 8:05 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
The red wings still have lebda – I’m not following. I didn’t mention Chelios because I think most wings fans would rather have 2009 Ericsson than 2007 Chelios. I didn’t count hasek because he was a bust in the playoffs… Goaltending wasn’t really that spectacular that year, although chris osgood did really well in the playoffs. It’s obviously easy to back up the claim that Hasek/Osgood is better than Osgood/Howard, but I think knowing now what we do about Hasek’s performance in the playoffs, a lot of fans feel just as comfortable with 2009’s goaltending as they did with 2007’s (i.e. not super excited but accepting of it)
Losing Hudler hurts, but I think Leino can fill his shoes.
The biggest loss I think is Drake, does Abdelkader, Bertuzzi, or Eaves fill in there? Or Helm during the regular season?
by detroitnick on Sep 22, 2009 4:42 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Sorry about Lebda, I just looked at the depth chart and not the full roster.
But you’re assuming an awfully lot from your rookies/youngsters. Essentially all the youth you talk about above is going towards making up for the players that have been lost (Drake, Samuelsson, Hudler being replaced by Leino, Abdelkader, Helm. Ericsson and Lilja filling in for Chelios and Lebda, Howard filling in for Hasek.) And then on top of all of that you’re also asking them to fill in for the guys who are diminishing due to age (Lidstrom, Osgood, and Holmstrom are all worse players than they were 2 years ago, and Draper and Maltby are starting to lose a step too. These guys are all past 35. Hasek may not have been good in the playoffs, but he was in the reg season, and he helped the Wings draw a #1 seed, which was essential to staying healthy in the playoffs.
PLUS St. Louis, Columbus, and Chicago are all substantially better (and Nashville’s pretty much the same level), so even if the Wings are as good as good as 2 years ago (which I don’t think they are), there’s no guarantee they will win the division and pull those nice Nashville and Colorado flawed teams that they pulled 2 years ago. Instead they may pull someone more like 07 Dallas and 07 Minnesota or something.
The 2009-10 Colorado Avalanche: Aiming for the Charity Point
Jibblescribbits: C'mon over and waste some time
by Jibblescribbits on Sep 22, 2009 5:06 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Who are the brain trusts....
…that voted the Wings 15th in the conference this year? Just because you’re not a fan doesn’t mean you have to be a drooling idiot.
by SDWingNut on Sep 22, 2009 9:40 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Maybe the same people who thought Colorado would finish first?
by Malurous on Sep 22, 2009 9:57 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
So only Chicago can challenge the Wings in the Central?
Oh well. It will be more fun this way.
www.stlouisgametime.com
by Brad Lee on Sep 22, 2009 10:19 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Blues guys are getting cocky now!
Blogging on hockey at fromtherink.com
by James Mirtle on Sep 22, 2009 10:40 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Norris rivalries don't die.
Well, not unless one of the teams moves to the Eastern Conference. Or to Dallas.
by BleedBlue42 on Sep 22, 2009 10:56 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
The Blues?
To win the division? Now that’s funny..No..No..really… with what? Do you trust that Kariya and McDonald will actually stay healthy for a season and Oh let’s not forget about Golf-cart Johnson (so nice of you to take him over Staal and Toews….really both Chicago and Pittsburgh thank-you immensely) The goaltending tandem of Mason (the bad one) and Conklin doesn’t strike fear into anyone and you don’t have the defence to blanket either one of them so…good luck with that. Not to mention (you’ll love this) when Chicago and Detroit were playing for the conference title you were sitting at home licking your wounds from a SWEEP in the first round by Vancouver…you mean you couldn’t score on Luongo? I mean the Hawks only got 7 on him in the most important game…what’s wrong with you guys? Oh yeah that’s right your St. Louis…still singin’ the Blues…at least Tony Kornheiser loves your name.
It's never about the eventual destination, but rather the long journey and its challenging obstacles that are presented and what it takes to overcome them, that makes the taste of success all the more worthwhile!!!
by hawks61 on Sep 22, 2009 10:21 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
The Hawks and Wings both have one clear advantage over the Blues in 09-10: desperation. Both teams will have serious cap issues in 10-11, and so will look at this season as their best chance for a while.
Assuming another year with no cap increase (probably optimistic, but good enough for a one-off post)…
Detroit has $16 million available in 10-11, with 13 players under contract. Not in that list are RFA Helm or UFA Lidstrom. Chicago is in even worse shape; the Hawks have $14 million available, with 12 players under contract. Their list of vacancies include RFA Toews, RFA Kane, RFA Keith, RFA Eager, and a truckload more.
by BleedBlue42 on Sep 23, 2009 11:39 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
If Ken Holland likes his team, that’s good enough for me. Leino, Helm and Ericsson were ready to play in the NHL last season, but didn’t because of cap issues. Holland doesn’t rush young players.
As for the vets, take a look at the Wings rosters over the last 10 years or so. They generally have a lot of vets. It’s generally worked for them, so why would Holland change the formula?
by skatehack on Sep 23, 2009 9:53 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
At some point he has to swap out those vets for some new vets cuz the current group of vets is just getting vettier.
2009-2010 Colorado Avalanche: Nothing Inspirational Comes to Mind
by Mike @ MHH on Sep 23, 2009 10:10 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
The Hawks and Wings both have one clear advantage over the Blues in 09-10: desperation
Hmm that never seemed to help me in my single days, how’s it going to help the Wings and Hawks?
The 2009-10 Colorado Avalanche: Aiming for the Charity Point
Jibblescribbits: C'mon over and waste some time
by Jibblescribbits on Sep 23, 2009 5:08 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Not really a better place for this comment so I’ll just throw it here. As far as playoff seeding goes, I really don’t like the way the division winners automatically claim a top 3 spot. It seems to me that the top 3 Western Conference teams in 2009-2010 will be the Hawks, Sharks, and Wings, just as it was last year. So what was Chicago’s reward for having the 3rd best record in the Western Conference? The Canucks having home ice advantage over them in the second round.
My point being, it’s going to be a very exciting battle for the top spot in the Central Division. There’s a very good chance that whoever finishes second could also finish with the second best record in the conference while still being seeded 4th for the playoffs. Anybody else irritated by this?
http://accordingtwomey.blogspot.com
by hawksfan21 on Sep 23, 2009 11:52 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
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