Since I've last posted, some interesting stuff has happened. However, this has happened to me, in addition to a lot of free time, but it's out of my system and I've re-entered the real world.

Basically.. Chris Chelios retired and moved into the Wings' front office, Jamie Tardif re-signed, Kirk Maltby has to take a two-way deal or take nothing, and Ilya Kovalchuk's contract got rejected, but there's a pretty fine consensus on all three of those things. Chelios was impressive, but I felt his last few years in Detroit just prevented some kids from coming up and caused the log jam that saw the team lose Kyle Quincey. Tardif was no surprise -- Detroit qualified him, which means they'd make an effort to sign him. He was the Griffins' captain last year, and while he's not going to be on the short list of call ups, he's tough and makes a good leader for the AHL. Everyone's known this about Maltby, but until recently, Ken Holland kept saying "we're trying to find a place for him" as if we didn't have 16 forwards ahead of him on the depth chart, but again, he'd make a good Griffin. And Kovalchuk doesn't have an impact on Detroit because Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen's contracts were signed long enough ago where they're not subject to an evalutation. Viola.

The real news is that our roster has come together with the addition of Ruslan Salei, a definite upgrade over the types of names that folks were suggesting for Detroit's #7 spot. I didn't mention him in the few posts where I listed a bunch of these mediocre defensemen because, honestly, I was sure I had heard he signed in the KHL. Clearly I imagined that, or it was a rumor or something, but let's not come to my defense here -- I'm stupid.

And the real question about the real news is.. is Salei actually still good? And the answer is, I don't know. I remember actually thinking the Wings should pick him up after the 2005-06 season, because I felt he was a really underrated piece on Anaheim's defense, but he went to Florida and completely disappeared for a few years. I watch Florida less than any other team so I have basically no memory of him there. He played in Colorado the past two and a half years, but was limited to just 14 games last season. The good news is, despite his physical blend of hockey, he actually stays pretty healthy. This was the third time in his 12 year career he played less than 65 games, so I don't have any big concerns about his health. The bad news is, some Colorado fans were happy to see him gone, but the good news is one of those fans was Adrian Dater.

Not including Mattias Ritola (he'll have to be lights out in camp to win a spot and force Detroit to waive someone who might get claimed, like Drew Miller), Detroit has $862,123 in cap space. That doesn't include the performance bonuses for Salei, at $350,000, or Modano at $500,000, which can carry over to next year if needed. That perfectly fits in Justin Abdelkader's entry level deal, but who knows if he's going longer term.

Either way, we're one body over the roster limit, and Ken Holland has said they'll only carry seven defenseman. What does this mean? Well, goodbye Derek Meech. It's only a matter of time until he gets moved, hopefully. Holland said a few times he'd be comfortable going into camp with the crew we had, but c'mon.. Meech plays eight minutes a night on a good night, and we signed a guy who played 14 games last year. I think both Holland and Meech knew Meech was on his way out. I wouldn't be surprised if he was guaranteed a trade -- why would a player who was headed to arbitration take a deal for the league minimum?

That would free up $500,000, and make the bonuses a little less of an impact on next year's cap, but it's pretty hard to picture a few thousand not falling into next year. Most importantly, we won't see Jonathan Ericsson and Jakub Kindl on the same pairing every night.