Unrestricted free agents: Kyle Quincey, D, Brad Richards, C, Darren Helm, F, Drew Miller, LW, Joakim Andersson, F
Restricted free agents:Danny DeKeyser, D, Riley Sheahan, C, Petr Mrazek, G, Teemu Pulkkinen, RW, Alexey Marchenko, D
Projected 2016 draft picks: 6 (1 in first)
Projected 2017 draft picks: 8 (1 in first)
Needs: Impact defenseman
Surpluses: Young forwards
Players Potentially in Play: Andersson
Likely status:Standing pat
Skinny:As usual, the Red Wings are in the thick of the race for the postseason as they try for their 25th consecutive Stanley Cup Playoff appearance. But things are a bit different this year; coach Jeff Blashill is in his first season after replacing Mike Babcock and younger players are playing more key roles than ever. Though the Red Wings still need the significant contributions of Pavel Datsyuk (37 years old), Henrik Zetterberg (35) and defenseman Niklas Kronwall (35), who is on injured reserve after arthroscopic knee surgery, for much of the season, Detroit's most consistent difference-makers have been star rookie forward Dylan Larkin (19), Mrazek (23), forwards Justin Abdelkader (28), Gustav Nyquist (26) and Tomas Tatar (25) and DeKeyser (25). General manager Ken Holland is exploring ways to make the Red Wings better, but there are a couple of major obstacles between Detroit and a significant trade deadline deal. The first and biggest is the Red Wings have less than $4.2 million of cap space, according to generalfanger.com. Also, Detroit isn't likely to trade any of the significant contributors it would take to bring back a player who would be a major upgrade. The Red Wings also are no longer a fan of trading draft picks because of their emphasis on developing their own players.
