Offseason Summary
Detroit lost not only two great player during the offseason, but two great leaders. Captain Steve “wonder” Yzerman decided to hung it up after 22 years with the Detroit Red Wings, in which helped build a struggling franchise to a dynasty over the last decade. The bad news did not end there for Detroit, as they lost their leading-goal scorer, and long-time Red Wing, Brendan Shanahan, who decided to sign with the New York Rangers during the offseason. Detroit also decided to part ways with starting goaltender Manny Legace, who they were unimpressed with in the playoffs. Detroit was initially interested in signing 41-year-old goaltender Ed Belfour, but the deal fell through. Surprisingly, Detroit decided to take a chance on another 41-year-old goaltender, Dominik Hasek, who will be in his third stint with the Detroit Red Wings in the upcoming season. Hasek is one of the most injury-prone goaltenders in the game, but Detroit did not really have much to choose from on the market, so they decided to take a chance on Hasek. When Hasek is healthy though, he is always one of the best goalies in the league. Besides that signing the Red wings signed hard-nosed defenseman Danny Markov, who should add even more depth to their already solid penalty-killing unit.
Notable Additions: Dominik Hasek, Danny Markov
Notable Losses: Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Cory Cross, Manny Legace, Jason Woolley, Mark Mowers
2005-06 MVP: Nicklas Lidstrom
2005-06 Best Scorer: Pavel Datsyuk
2005-06 Best Defenseman: Nicklas Lidstrom
2005-06 Most Improved Player: Jason Williams
2005-06 Best Rookie: Johan Franzen
2006-07 Outlook: Well last season everyone thought Detroit was at the end of their dynasty era, and people were wondering if they would even win their division. Well Detroit did better than just win their division; they had the best record in the league. Unfortunately they were sent home packing early in the playoffs for the second time in 3 years, as they were upset by Edmonton in the first round. Now Detroit is even weaker on paper than last year, but you still can’t count them out as they always find ways to win, and you expect other players to pick up the slack of the guys who left the team during the offseason. The Red wings still have their two most talented forwards, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, but those two will need help from guys like Tomas Holmstrom, Robert Lang, and Jason Williams. Another player the Red Wings hope to get a good season from is highly-touted defenseman Niklas Kronwall, whose rookie season was limited because of a knee injury; they expect him to be a top four defenseman next season. Detroit’s main issue will definitely be their goaltending, if Hasek is healthy it will obviously not be an issue, but the chances of that are pretty slim. I do not consider the Detroit Red Wings the favourite to win the Western Conference next season, and I think they will have a tough time winning the Central Division with the young lineup the Nashville Predators have. Dominik Hasek will need to be healthy for this team to contend next season.
