Green and Richards key off season pick ups for Wings

The past few seasons have been interesting for fans of the Detroit Red Wings with a couple of major changes.

First – the team that staked its reputation on grabbing league elders that wanted to play one or two final seasons in Motown has changed as Detroit is no longer considered among the league’s ‘Elite’ squads and therefore, not a first choice location for players anymore.

Second – while fans of other teams assumed a mass exodus of retiring vets would someday leave the team twisting on the roadside, void of talent, the Wings made a seamless transition into one of the most promising young teams in the league with a minor league system that seems to be overflowing with NHL-ready talent.

No longer immediately thought of as a Stanley Cup contender, the Wings are actually not that far off. For the second year in a row, the team made a first round playoff exit, but a seven game series against a Tampa Bay Lightning team that ended up hoisting the Prince of Wales Trophy as Eastern Conference champs.

The biggest ongoing story over the summer may be that of the off season surgery and expected recoup time of 4-5 months that will see Pavel Datsyuk out of action likely until November. Also, while no news may be good news, it’s at best up in the air whether the long term effects of concussions will allow Johan Franzen to return this fall – if ever.

The Wings started the summer season at the draft, adding Yevgeny Svechnikov to its roster with the 19^th overall selection. Svechnikov is a 6’2”, 200 lbs. winger who took the untraditional route, for Russians, by playing this past season with Cape Breton in the Quebec Major Junior League. He collected 78 points in just 55 games with Cape Breton and it will be interesting to see what he can do in another full season there, and likely with the Russian World Junior team as well.

The Wings’ second round pick went to Dallas to finish off the trade for Eric Cole at this past season’s deadline and the Wings collected Dallas’ third rounder, using the 73^rd overall selection to take Vili Saarijarvi who plied his trade with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL last season and may play with the OHL’s Flint Firebirds this season.

The Wings made as big a splash as it has in the past several seasons on the opening day of free agency this season adding offensive defenseman Mike Green from the Capitals and veteran forward Brad Richards who just a few weeks prior hoisted the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks.

The only other addition was Eric Tangradi, a left winger who has split time between the NHL and AHL for each of the previous half dozen seasons, most recently with Montreal/Hamilton.

The rest of the off season free agent activity was simply re-signing its own players and as of July 24, the Wings have not lost a single player this summer.

Most notable resigning was Gustav Nyquist who will have a salary cap hit of about $4.5 million and young defenseman Brendan Smith who signed early for two years at $2.75 million. Others resigned (in order of date resigned) include: center Andy Miele; goaltender Tom McCollum; center Landon Ferraro; defenseman Nick Jensen; winger Mitch Callahan; center Louis-Marc Aubry and winger, Teemu Pulkkinen.

The Wings have some salary cap room left and some suspect there may be a move or two left before the season starts.

The prospects will get a good look at the annual Traverse City tournament in September and the team will begin camp in the same city immediately following the event.