How To Fix The Detroit Red Wings

The 2011 Detroit Red Wings had their season end in a near similar fashion to the 2010 season, a semi-final knockout at the hands of the San Jose Sharks. The one glaring difference between last year's playoff run and this one's was the goaltending as Jimmy Howard proved that he's ready to take this team forward. The Wings were second in the league in scoring goals while they ranked 23rd in goals allowed, the main problem for the Wings in the regular season was inconsistent play from their defense and Jimmy Howard. Both seemed to improve in the playoffs when the Wings cut their goals against to 2.48 opposed to the 2.84 they were allowing in the regular season.

Taking a look at what the Wings have coming back from their 2011 team.

Forward: Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Dan Cleary, Todd Bertuzzi, Valterri Filppula, Jiri Hudler, Tomas Holmstrom, Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader.

Defense: Niklas Kronwall, Brad Stuart, Jakub Kindl.

Goalie: Jimmy Howard

The Wings have some decisions to make and some money to spend now that Brian Rafalski is expected to announce his retirement tomorrow. Factor that money with the cap expected to jump anywhere from one to four million dollars next year and the possibility of Nicklas Lidstrom retiring too and the Wings can seriously hit the market. The team is likely to bring back Patrick Eaves and Drew Miller, both forwards who do their damage on the third and forth line and killing penalties. But their real attention needs to be aimed at improving the defense. Mike Modano and Kris Draper are unlikely to return to the team.

Jonathan Ericsson has reportedly turned down a two million dollar per year deal and is likely to walk after failing to develop into a big, physical defenseman. They'll wait on captain Nick Lidstrom to make his decision on retirement or returning for his 20th season. The team could very well let Jakub Kindl and Brendan Smith both play on the blue line next year especially after Kindl blossomed post all-star break. The Wings could make a play at Shea Weber but he's a restricted free agent and Nashville has a chance to match any offer. Nashville has also been on record saying that they will in fact match any offer.

If the Wings can't land Weber there are plenty of other possible replacements. Some top unrestricted defensemen: Andrei Markov, Scott Hannan, Eric Brewer, Tomas Kaberle, Joni Pitkanen, Kevin Bieksa, James Wisniewski, Christian Ehrhoff and Ian White. The salaries on those gusys were three million or higher, so it is highly unlikely the Wings would sign more than one of those guys. Some cheaper UFAs include: Shane O'Brien, Hal Gill, Steve Montador and Kent Huskins.

The Wings could go after some restricted free agents the likes of: ATL Zach Bogosian ($3.3 mil), CHI Chris Campoli ($1.4 mil), COL Matt Hunwick (1.45 mil), EDM Ladislav Smid ($1.3 mil), LAK Alec Martinez ($875,000) and PHX Keith Yandle ($1.2 mil). Now the problem with going after RFAs is the team they came from can choose to match any offer they are given. And if you do sign a RFA compensation usually costs you a draft pick, usually first round picks and sometimes multiple first rounders.

One last problem is finding a backup goalie because Chris Osgood and Joey MacDonald are both free agents. They'll have to decide if it's worth the risk to re-sign either of them. Osgood is aging and missed the last half of the year due to a sports hernia surgery. Meanwhile, MacDonald has been a life long minor league goalie while spending some small amount of time in the NHL with a handful of teams.

If I were Ken Holland I'd try to target one defenseman on each of those lists and with the near 14-20 million the Wings will have to spend this offseason it shouldn't be too hard for Holland to revamp this team. But his main focus needs to be defense and a backup goalie.