The Detroit Red Wings announced that they have re-signed Todd Bertuzzi to a new 2-year deal on Wednesday night, worth $3.875 million, which works out to a salary cap hit of $1.9375 million per season. It appears that Bertuzzi has found a good home in Detroit and the team seems to value the results of his work ethic, especially in the 3rd line role he plays in.
In 2010, Bertuzzi finished the regular season with 18 goals and 26 assists for 44 points in 82 games, which ranked him 123rd among all forwards in the league in scoring. It was a slight bump up the charts from 2009, where he ranked 130th thanks to 44 points in 66 games with the Calgary Flames. Back-to-back years of 40+ points has to look good on the 35-year old.
One of the biggest concerns with Bertuzzi in the past few seasons has been his health, but since he played his first 82-game season since 2006, he should be closer to being a safe bet for a lot of games. I would still be weary about his durability when contemplating when to choose him in your fantasy pool draft.
| Forwards | Defense | Goalies |
| Pavel Datsyuk | Nicklas Lidstrom | Jimmy Howard |
| Henrik Zetterberg | Brian Rafalski | Chris Osgood |
| Tomas Holmstrom | Niklas Kronwall | |
| Todd Bertuzzi | Brad Stuart | |
| Valtteri Filppula | Jonathan Ericsson | |
| Dan Cleary | ||
| Kris Draper | ||
| Johan Franzen | ||
| Jiri Hudler |
The Red Wings are closing in on a full roster, having already 16 players on their signed table for the 2011 season. Unfortunately, their cap number is already pretty high, sitting at $52.7 million and they will need at least two more defensemen and four more forwards to round out the roster. The annual salary cap ceiling number has still to be announced, but even if it goes up by $2 million, it should still be a struggle for the Red Wings to fill up the roster with quality talent, unless they feel some of their youth is ready.
The Red wings are by far the oldest team assembled at this point through the Summer. The 16 players signed on above have an average age of 32.2 years, where the next highest team, the New Jersey Devils, have an average age of 30.7. Detroit plays exceptionally well, but the question will linger, what will this age gap do to their play by the end of the year?
For those wondering, I have the Los Angeles Kings as the youngest team currently assembled at 26.8 years, followed closely by the Toronto Maple Leafs at 26.9.
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