Detroit Red Wings in the Free Agent Market: Who's Coming, Who's Going?

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But, despite that, he continued to play a highly physical game while keeping up his scoring and defensive points. With the departure of Chris Pronger from Anaheim, the Ducks will try very hard to keep him to play with Niedermayer for another season.

Marc-Andre Bergeron is a smaller defenseman.  His size may deter teams who prefer to play a more physical game on defense.

But, for the Red Wings, size really doesn't matter as they are consistently one of the smaller teams. Bergeron also has an incredibly heavy shot, which plays well into the Red Wings' defensive scheme.

With many of the Red Wings forwards about to leave for free agency, it is key for the club to replace them with high caliber players from the market.

The names that stand out are: Marian Gaborik, Mike Cammalleri, and Mike Comrie.

Marian Gaborik is a bit of an enigma.  He is is one of the most talented players in the league, when he's healthy.

But, that's the problem.

He has always had more than his fair share of health problems. Gaborik may also want to stay with Wind under the new administration that may prove to be more forward friendly, but (more than likely) he will hit the free market.

He will undoubtedly make whichever team signs him much better, as long as they give him plenty of sabbatical time to recover from his injuries.

Mike Cammalleri is only 27 and is coming off of a career high 39 goal season. Last season, Camalleri went 39-43-82.

But, with the Calgary Flames being a bit light in the pockets, it seems that Cammalleri will try his luck on the open market. He is sure to command a high salary with whichever team he chooses.

With the Wings facing financial troubles of their own, I don't see this being an option.

Mike Comrie is a very skilled forward who fell on hard times last season, scoring just 10 times. But, he has been a 20 goal scorer five times and is only 28.  Again, he struggled with injuries last season, but, if a team can overlook that, he could turn out to be quite a steal.

And, it seems that every conversation about improving the Red Wings comes back to goaltending. Chris Osgood is one of the best playoff goalies in NHL history—look at his stats.

But, it seems like the Red Wings need another quality backup for him.

Conklin filled the backup role admirably, but he doesn't get the credit he deserves. Through the last two seasons, he is 43-19-7 with a 2.51 GAA. Conklin had some down times last season, but so did Osgood.

With the quality of the free agent goaltenders this year, it looks as if Conklin is the best option.

The only other name on the goaltender free agent list that may draw consideration is Manny Fernandez.  Now that Tim Thomas is dug in as the starter in Boston, Fernandez looks to leave for another gig where he could fight for the starters role.

The Red Wings may want to stick with Osgood and Conklin and just bide their time until Jimmy Howard is ready with a free agent class like this.

Whatever happens Wednesday, the Red Wings have some of the best hockey minds in the world at the helm, and the team will surely look different compared to last year.

But, it may just be for the better.

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