Everyone's Taking Pay Cuts, but...

Nick Lidstrom re-signs with the Red Wings and takes a pay cut. Tomas Holmstrom may just follow that example, if he hasn't already. Todd Bertuzzi, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Patrick Eaves, and Drew Miller are probably not getting raises, so now the Wings have plenty of room under the cap, whatever it goes up to this year.

What does that leave us with? $5 million or so? The Wings are certainly not going to leave a cap surplus if they can sign someone, so who's going to get it? Brendan Smith is already signed. Is one of the guys I already listed going to get a raise? Is Drew Miller even going to be here, or is he going to Buffalo? What the hell does Kenny Holland have up his sleeve this year? Granted, if all those people sign, the Wings will have like $1.3 million left, more if the cap goes up. It probably wont drop, and if Miller departs, that will give the Wings another, what, $.8mil? $1mil? How about I get the rumor mill started right now? This is what happens when you start thinking about shit at 2:30 in the morning. Ready?

Patrick Marleau? He's 31, still young by Red Wings standards, right? Only problem is, he comes with a $6.3mil cap hit. So...probably not unless the Wings do some serious housecleaning, which isn't in the cards. Still...maybe the Wings can get Pavol Demetra and his $4mil cap number. HA! Right...but you were thinking about it, weren't you? No? Oh, OK.

Now for the serious talk. The Wings need another "ready to play" goalitender after Larsson left, right? So scroll down to the bottom of the UFA goalie list and...

*GASP*

Is that Michael Leighton's name? Who knew he was a free agent? Nobody is even talking about it, since he is still playing in the finals. Really? This is what passes for "serious talk" around here? Sure. The Wings still have Osgood, so why the hell would they need another goalie until 2011? Buuuuuuut.....his cap hit would be really, really small, and he is playing out of his head. Heh, maybe we could even get Ville Leino back.....wait, what? Did I say that out loud?

OK, two more names for you to chew on: Anybody thinking about the almost-certain exodus of Ruslan Fedotenko from the Penguins? Could be a deal at a $1.8mil cap hit, right? Maybe he will follow the current trend and take a pay cut to play in Detroit. Because everyone wants to play in Detroit, don't they? Hell, its only like 7 hrs away, and he's going to a new arena regardless, so wouldn't now be a good time for a move? Just sayin...

An even better deal, with a $1.6mil cap number, could be Joe Pavelski. (Although I don't know how his cap hit is so low, doesn't he pull down like $4mil with the (stupid) Sharks?) But still, the guy is like 26 years old so he is pretty young yet, no older than Jimmy Howard. Why not? He's pretty good, hopefully not a flash in the pan. And it would be really cool to take him away from the (stupid) Sharks and win a Cup with him. That would be hilarious, especially since the Wings would probably have to go through the (stupid) Sharks to get there. As if the curse of Arcturus Irbe won't be enough to keep the (stupid) Sharks from winning a Cup.

Yet another thing to think about is that there is NO...FUCKING...WAY the Chicago Blackhawks are getting in under the cap next year. Thankfully, Marian Hossa is locked up because I would rather get a large, full color tattoo of Patrick Roy's face on my taint than pick up Hossa again.

So yeah, this IS the best I can come up with right now, it is after all 3:00am...so all of you can start throwin stones and pokin holes in my theories. At least I am thinking outside the boards. What the hell are the rest of you doing at this hour besides geeking out on your computer or PS3 playing Modern Warfare online while scarfing a whole box of Twinkies?

Thought so...