The Red Wings are holding the course, but it's more for lack of choice, since they wanted to make sure that they have their best players for the long-term and only losing some of their lesser role players and rental free agents over the summer. The Wings will likely resort to calling up some of their young prospects and minor signings to help fill the gaps on the third and fourth lines in the 2010 season. Ville Leino signed a one-way deal this summer, which should guarantee him a spot on the team, despite only playing in 13 games in the regular season in 2009. He did have 9 points in that stretch.I would assume that the fantasy numbers should remain about the same with some new faces taking a big jump, like Leino and Jimmy Howard, who is pegged to be Chris Osgood's back-up.
| Forwards | Defense | Goaltenders |
| Pavel Datsyuk | Nicklas Lidstrom | Chris Osgood |
| Henrik Zetterberg | Brian Rafalski | Jimmy Howard |
| Johan Franzen | Niklas Kronwall | |
| Dan Cleary | Brett Lebda | |
| Valtteri Filppula | Brad Stuart | |
| Tomas Holmstrom | Andreas Lilja | |
| Kris Draper | Derek Meech | |
| Kirk Maltby | ||
| Ville Leino | ||
| Darren Helm | ||
| Justin Abdelkader |
The Wings made the decision to give long-term deals with salary cap beneifts to their superstars, but when they have a large number of superstars, they handcuffed themselves a little bit when it comes to their depth. Right now, the Red Wings are now sitting with 19 players signed on for next season at a cap rate of $53.4 million, which doesn't leave them with much room for the remaining four players they need for a full roster. Look for players like Jeremy Williams, Cory Emmerton and Jan Mursak to make an impact or enough of a ruckus to earn a spot on the forward lines.
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