Champion Red Wings likely to remain intact

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Unlike the Pittsburgh Penguins, who will be in a mad scramble to keep their roster together this summer, the Detroit Red Wings are nicely positioned to follow up their Stanley Cup championship with another and another and perhaps still another after that.According to assistant general manager Jim Nill, the Red Wings figure to have virtually the same team in place for the next three years. The real fissure will come when Nicklas Lidstrom, who signed a two-year extension earlier this year, but turned 38 in April, decides to call it a career.Apart from Brad Stuart, the Red Wings have no unrestricted free agents of any consequence to negotiate with this summer and only one of consequence next summer (Conn Smythe Trophy winner Henrik Zetterberg). But with about $12-million to spend this summer by Nill's estimate, excluding the $4.1-million that will come off the books when goalie Dominik Hasek's contract expires, the money is there to sign Stuart.Stuart's decision will be based on how badly he wants to return to the West Coast again for family reasons, and if there are any other teams there that want him. As for Zetterberg, they'll offer Pavel Datsyuk-type money (about $7-million a season on a multiyear deal) and expect that since he wants to stay and they want to keep him, that a deal will be done soon after July 1, when they are officially eligible to open negotiations.In short, the Red Wings did what was supposed to be nearly impossible -- rebuild on the fly, with most of the players who make a difference on what was the best team in hockey, regular season and playoffs, playing on affordable contracts in an environment they're not anxious to leave.For all the winning the Red Wings did in the past, it was clear that this championship resonated with general manager Ken Holland, the architect of the team. In the pre-salary cap era, the Red Wings were able to outspend some teams. Even though they succeeded where other large-market teams (Rangers, Maple Leafs) faltered, there was always a stigma attached to their financial clout, as though somehow that cheapened the victory.Not this time."We'd won three championships and all we heard was we had more money than anyone else," Holland said amid the on-ice celebration Wednesday.? "Now, it's a level playing field. Everybody starts in September, with an equal chance. We've got five or six guys that won the Cup before, but it's new leadership."That new leadership is not part of the axis of Hasek, Chris Chelios, Dallas Drake and Darren McCarty either; they're the players who made a difference in all four rounds."Zee (Zetterberg) is just coming into his prime," Holland said. "Pavel and Zee are 29 and 27. (Niklas) Kronwall's 27. (Valtteri) Filppula, he was playing hurt most of the playoffs with a sprained knee, to see him battling at 24. I thought Jiri Hudler did a hell of a job."It should be noted that all of the aforementioned players were recruited from Europe, a Red Wings' specialty.Detroit won with a template -- skill and speed -- that fell out of favor in some quarters last season after the Anaheim Ducks brawled their way to the championship. The Ducks led the NHL in fighting majors two years ago, the first team since the Broad Street Bullies of the mid-1970s to do so and win a Stanley Cup in the same year.In the NHL's copy-cat world, here was a surprise: Fighting was up this past season; teams suddenly found the need to add an enforcer or two (or in the case of the Minnesota Wild, four). The thinking was if it worked for Anaheim, why not co-opt the formula?Then along came the Red Wings, who've finished last in the league in fighting for three consecutive seasons. Yes, they did bring in Aaron Downey to provide a pugilist's presence for 56 games, but Downey played only 4 minutes 35 seconds a night. The Red Wings' philosophy, as articulated by Red Wings' VP Jimmy Devellano, is that talent rules."In my 41 years with three teams, the one thing that's always stood out is, more often than not, talent -- having good hockey players -- always wins," Devellano said."We've always made talent the No.?1 priority -- and if you need a missing piece, like some grit, or a goaltender, you fill in around it. At the end of the day, who drives the bus? Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen -- skill, talent, they make things happen."Holland disputes the notion that past playoff failures had anything to do with their lack of toughness."There's this theory out there that when you play the Detroit Red Wings, our lack of success in the playoffs is because we weren't tough enough," Holland said. "I don't think it had anything to do with that. Some years, it was a great series and we just lost. Some years, we had key people out who were injured. Some years, the other team's goalie absolutely stood on his head."But to think we ever lost a series because we were intimidated, I've never seen it."(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)