On the opening day of free agency, the Red Wings signed Daniel Alfredsson and Stephen Weiss. The two are seen as upgrades over Damien Brunner and Valtteri Filppula - though I think Brunner has a lot more upside over Alfredsson at this point in their careers.
Regardless, Detroit currently has 14 forwards. They will be re-signing restricted free agent forwards Joakim Andersson and Gustav Nyquist which will put them at 16. Helene St. James reports that the Wings are also still trying to re-sign Dan Cleary here, which would put the team at 17 forwards. Teams are only allowed to carry 23 players during the season, and the Wings plan on having 14 forwards and 7 defensemen. So, 2-3 forwards are going to go, the question becomes who?
Looking at Detroit's lines, their top two scoring lines will be anchored by Zetterberg/Datsyuk and Weiss/Alfredsson. Johan Franzen will be on one of those lines, while Nyquist or Abdelkader will likely be on the other. The other two lines will be centered by Darren Helm and Joakim Andersson. I'm assuming Tatar is on one of those lines as the Wings look to develop him into the scorer he has been in the AHL. That boils down to something like this:
Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Abdelkader/Nyquist
Franzen - Weiss - Alfredsson
Abdelakder/Nyquist - Helm - ?
Tatar - Andersson - ?
The Red Wings re-signed Drew Miller this past spring, so he figures to be in one of those two spots. The other spot will likely go to one of Todd Bertuzzi or Dan Cleary if he's re-signed. I personally don't see the need or benefit to re-signing Cleary as Patrick Eaves is a similar and cheaper player at a smaller cap hit.
The bottom line is that no matter how this shakes out; it looks like Jordin Tootoo, Mikael Samuelsson, and Cory Emmerton are looking unlikely to crack a healthy lineup. Either two or all three of them in fact need to go. I think Emmerton will remain on the team through training camp, so that the Wings can make sure Helm is ready. He's also a guy who they can waive without hurting their salary cap if he gets to the minors. Jordin Tootoo is a pest, and wasn't a fit with the Wings from the moment he was signed. His game just doesn't match the puck possession game Detroit plays, and he's not overly effective as a regular skater in any system. Still, he's likely a player who can be traded as teams are always looking to add physical fourth line pests. Mikael Samuelsson is the tricky one here. He was somehow given a no-trade clause per Capgeek, which means he can veto any trade. It was widely speculated that Detroit wanted to buy him out, but couldn't due to him being injured. A no-trade clause does mean that the Wings can waive him if they so choose, but makes enough that his salary will still count against the Wings even if he plays in the minors.
It's going to take a bit of wizardry to get Samuelsson off the team, and I'm interested to see how the management group does it after giving him a contract that made no sense in the first place due to his recent injury problems.
If the team gets stuck with Samuelsson, it'll likely be Patrick Eaves who will be traded. This would be unfortunate as Eaves is a speedy bottom six forward who can still score goals in the double digits and kill penalties. And, he's one of two right-handed shots on the team (the other being Alfredsson).
The bottom line is there will be some more roster movement this summer in Detroit as Ken Holland and the management team attempt to get their group of forwards down to fourteen.
