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What now for the Wings...
Congratulations to the Red Wings. An unreal team. And special congrats to Ken Holland is so good at his job, that it's scary.
A lot to read this morning in all of the papers. Most of it of course celebrates this team. But I noticed this in
John Niyo's blog in the Detroit News that I thought was really interesting. A good look at the future of this franchise. Surprise, surprise....it's pretty bright!
<<Injuries? Yeah, they had a few. More than a few, actually. Talked to
a champagne-soaked trainer, Piet van Zant, in the zamboni entrance a
couple hours ago and his initial response was, "Everybody was playing
through something." But then rattled off the abridged version: Tomas
Holmstrom was playing with a sports hernia (for a long time) and a torn
hamstring. Valtteri Filppula wasn't practicing because of a fairly
signficant knee injury. Brad Stuart also was playing with a knee injury
that would've had him sitting in the regular season. Darren Helm limped
out of there tonight with a nasty charley horse. And, yes, there was
more than just concussion-like symptoms plaguing Johan Franzen, but van
Zant said the team and Franzen will wait a day or two before explaining
what exactly went on with that whole saga. There's more than that,
obviously. But that gives you an idea of just why we call this the
toughest trophy in sports to win.
As for the rest of the housekeeping, Mike Babcock will sign a new
three-year deal in the next day or two. I bet it'll be announced Friday
-- just a guess, though.
Dallas Drake said he didn't want to make a decision right now on his
future. Too emotional, he said. But living away from his family all
season was brutal, and now that he's won the Cup, I expect he'll
retire. Ditto Dominik Hasek, who doesn't get enough credit for the
composure he showed the last six weeks. His son graduated from high
school last week (Dom missed it, as he was on the road) and Michael is
headed to Michigan State in the fall, but I know Dom's daughter and
wife were ready to move back to the Czech Republic a year ago, so now's
a perfect time to do that. Chris Chelios hated sitting in the Finals,
but he's not ready to quit and he'll be back for another year. Brad
Stuart? Now that he's been on this side of the fence, the lure of the
West coast isn't quite as strong, I'm guessing. Andreas Lilja? Probably
gone, replaced in the lineup by Jonathan Ericsson.
And what does all that mean? The Wings have about $40 million
committed to next year's roster, and the cap is exp expected to be
upwards of $56 million. Some of that will go to resigning RFAs
Filppula, Howard and UFAs Stuart and Chelios. But that'll still leave a
good chunk of money to spend in free agency.
Scary as it sounds for the rest of the league, the Wings might be even better a year from now.>>
© 2008