EDMONTON — Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland has been wearing one of those “What, me worry?” looks since Marian Hossa and Mikael Samuelsson left as free agents last week. But Wednesday’s news that winger Jiri Hudler may have bolted for Moscow Dynamo, too, is troublesome.
The Red Wings still have Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen to scare teams silly, and they have some good players coming, like Ville Leino and Justin Abdelkader.
But Hudler is only 25. He’s a top-six forward who was going to salary arbitration and figured to get a huge raise over last year’s $1.15 million US to around $3 million in a ruling off his 57 points last year.
Maybe that’s a little rich for the Red Wings, who have $54.5 million committed to 11 forwards, eight defencemen and two goalies for next season. But they could make it work by dumping other contracts.
Now if the report is true that Hudler — who was also being romanced by Dynamo of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League a couple of years ago — has agreed to a two-year contract, it complicates things.
Where do they find another offensive talent? The contract, which news stories say is worth $2 million a year but could be higher than that because Hudler says “one doesn’t get offers like this every year,” came out of the blue.
Holland doesn’t know if Hudler has signed in Russia, or only agreed to play there, or if his agent, former NHL defenceman Petr Svoboda, is keeping the offer in his back pocket and will see what Hudler gets in arbitration first. No Red Wings player has gone that route since Ray Sheppard in ’95 because they like to sign their guys before that unpleasant experience, but Hudler filed, anyway.
“If he has signed, our assumption is he’s gone,” said Holland, who thought he might lose Hossa (Chicago Blackhawks) and Samuelsson (Vancouver Canucks) but felt he could keep Hudler.

Lemieux retires again
In San Jose, Claude Lemieux retired for the second time after his stirring comeback last season from five years away from the game.
“It was a family adventure we took on, and I proved I could do it,” said the incredibly fit Lemieux, 44, who got into 18 games with the Sharks after starting the season in China, then playing in the American Hockey League in Worcester, before returning to the NHL in a fourth-line role.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t question myself at times, riding the buses and playing three games in three nights and coming back to my hotel room and wondering how much longer I could do this before my body was ready,” said Lemieux.
His time in San Jose was hampered by a broken bone in his jaw, but he showed he could keep up to the pace of the game now. He may get into coaching, but will take the upcoming season off.
“Very driven. His competitiveness is unique to this game,” said Sharks general manager Doug Wilson, who loved having Lemieux and his son, Brendan, around the locker-room. “Some day, I think he (12-year-old) will be playing in this league,” said Wilson.

Stars add goaltending depth
After losing out on Swedish free-agent goalie Jonas Gustavsson, who signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, the Dallas Stars moved quickly to get a backup for Marty Turco. They gave up a sixth-round draft pick to the Ottawa Senators for Alex Auld. The Sens will use Brian Elliott as Pascal Leclaire’s understudy this season.

Keith due for a big raise in 2010
The Chicago Blackhawks now have four defenceman — Brian Campbell, Brent Seabrook, Cam Barker, and Brent Sopel — making more than Duncan Keith ($1.9 million US), who is their best player on the blue-line. Keith shouldn’t get a cent less than $6 million next year when his contract runs out. Barker just got $9 million over three years, and he’s their fourth best. Meanwhile, Kris Versteeg, who has played one season in the NHL, just signed for $9.25 million over three years in Chicago.
Edmonton Journal