Coming off of a great 3-0 deficit in round 2 of the playoffs only to fall one game short, the Red Wings will still have an excellent core in place but some changes will need to be made to stay at the top of the food chain.

Here is a link with the salaries and contract lengths:

http://www.nhlnumbers.com/teams/DET?year=2011

My Take:

Forwards-

Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, and Fillppula are our core forwards.

Cleary, Abdukader, Helm, Bertuzzi and Holmstrom (if he doesn't retire) should all be kept.

Draper and Modano will likely (and should) retire.

Eaves and Miller are end of the bench players and should only be brought back if we can't find anything better.

Hudler should be traded. He's soft, sucks, and just annoys the hell out of me with his uninspired play.

Defense-

I hope that Lidstrom comes back. The guy can still play at a very high level.

Kronwall, Rafalski, and Stuart are all under contract. I wish that we could trade Rafalski as he was almost invisible in the playoffs and his play had been poor of late. He never was great in the defensive end and as his offense wains, he becomes a liability. He has been in steady decline since the Olympics. Stuart is solid. I would trade him but don't mind if he stays.

Eriksson should be brought back at the right price as he has steadily improved. Kindl should be given more PT.

Salei should be cut loose. He didn't impress me one bit and looked very shaky at times.

Goaltending-

Howard is the man and our starting goalie for the next two years.

Osgood is done and should retire. he's not very good anymore and can't stay healthy. Give a youngster a chance.

MacDonald needs no be re-signed. He was a very solid back-up and barring some young stud in the minors, is the best we have.

Your opinions???