Schneider stays in Detroit
While the Wings lost Mathieu Dandenault to the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit was able to keep Mathieu Schneider. “Mathieu did a nice job for us,” Holland said. “He’s going back home. He got a real good offer from Montreal. He inked a four year deal worth $7 million. “With the development of Jiri Fischer, and having Nicklas Lidstrom, and we’re hoping to add another top-four defenseman, we didn’t envision Mathieu in our top four. And if he’s not in the top four, we couldn’t pay that type of money,” Holland said.
Last night, Schneider signed a two year contract valued at $6.6 million. After buying out Derian Hatcher last week, the Wings really needed to sign a strong defenseman. “We have to sign another goalie,” Holland said. “No doubt I’d like to sign a top-four defenseman, if possible. Not a guy that commands a lot of money, but one that can come in and play 20 minutes. With Nick Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, and Jiri Fischer, we feel we’ve got three guys who can play in the top four,” Holland said.
Detroit also offered Chris Chelios a one year contract. Chelios is expected to make a decision soon. “I made an offer to Chris Chelios, but if Chris comes back, I see his role in the third pair. We don’t want to wear him down,” Holland said.
Marc Levine, Henrik Zetterberg’s agent, believes it is unlikely Zetterberg will stay in native Sweden even though he won the Swedish scoring title playing for Timra IK. “At this point, his emphasis is to get back playing in the NHL,” Levine said. “He is an up-and-coming star. We’re continuing to talk with Detroit.” Zetterberg is looking for at least a 10 percent raise from the $675,000 he made in 2003-2004. Update: A source close to the Wings organization told a family member today that they believe Zetterberg will return to Detroit; it’s just a matter of hammering out the details and reaching a deal.
With only around $12 million left under the cap, Holland must focus his efforts on signing youthful stars like Datsyuk, Kronwall, Williams, and Zetterberg. It no longer looks like the Wings will sign Nikolai Khabibulin who is rumored to be heading to Chicago. This makes Chris Osgood’s return to Detroit much more likely.
“We have to pick and choose and be patient,” Holland said. “In the first wave, teams are signing players and signing those players to be core players. We’ve got those parts — I’m looking for the right complementary parts. I’ve got to get some good deals. We’ve got to wait for the market place to change, to become a cheaper market place, and then we’ll get busy on the market. It may take another week.”Â
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