Plan B for the Red Wings

Last week, the Red Wings lost out on both of the top free agents to the Minnesota Wild. Forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter spurned their former teams as well as many others including the Red Wings to play on the same team, for family reasons.

It’s unfortunate because Detroit is still left with a gaping hole on the back-end, with the retirement of Nicklas Lidstrom, and the loss of Brad Stuart to the San Jose Sharks.

it is the first time in a long time the Red Wings were spurned for another team. In fact, I can’t think of the last time the Red Wings pursued one-two players so heavily and lost out.

Pre-salary cap era, General Manager Ken Holland and owner Mike Ilitch would throw out some money to big-name free agents, and they would come here because of the great ownership, the constant ability to be competitive and the chance to play for an Original Six team.

If you want to think that Detroit is no longer a destination for free agents, think again. This was a pure family decision. Parise is from Minnesota, so is the rest of his family.

Suter’s fiance is from Minnesota. Suter also lives in Madison, Wisconsin, a lot closer to St. Paul than Detroit.

“They were right there till the end,” said Suter. “Detroit is a great franchise. They’ve got a great thing going there, everybody knows how much success they’ve had.”