Bigger and tougher.

Those are two things the Detroit Red Wings want to be next season according to senior vice president Jimmy Devellano.

During an interview with Ron Cameron on WDFN, Devellano touched on a wide variety of subjects. One of the most interesting involved possible changes to the Red Wings' roster this summer.

When asked if the NHL playoffs have revealed that the key to success these days might revolve around a more physical team rather than one with less of a wide-open style, Devellano had this to say:

"It appears that way," he said. "Certainly we'd like to get a bit bigger and a little tougher. We'd like to get a little bigger size-wise and a little tougher. We really prefer tougher players who can play the game, not just somebody who can play two-three minutes and fight.

"We prefer somebody like Darren McCarty or Joe Kocur or Martin Lapointe. That type of player who can play and is big and strong."

Devellano also talked about his role as a Detroit Tigers' vice president; possible NHL conference and divisional realignment; the Collective Bargaining Agreement; drafting Steve Yzerman; prospects Brendan Smith and Gustav Nyquist being "penciled in" for next year's team; and his start with the Red Wings 30 years ago.

One of the hot topics since the Red Wings were eliminated from the playoffs by the Nashville Predators has been the defensive corps.

Captain Nicklas Lidstrom is contemplating retirement again, free agent Brad Stuart appears as if he'll leave the Red Wings for California and potential free agents include Nashville defenseman Ryan Suter, who could be near the top of Detroit general manager Ken Holland's wish list if he tests the open market.

New Jersey forward Zach Parise is another possible target for the Wings but as was the case with Suter, Devellano wouldn't go into specifics.

"I can't mention names because that would be tampering," Devellano said. "But the only thing I will tell you is Ken Holland will be very aggressive come July 1. I think you know how we operate. I think you know how Mike Ilitch operates. We'll be aggressive. If there are some good players out there, we're gonna go hard.

"We know the team needs to improve. I would just leave it with Ken. He knows that we need another defenseman and we could use another forward. That doesn't mean those things will be easy to get because there will be other suitors. Bu you know the Red Wings will be aggressive and won't just sit on their hands."

Devellano said he expects the NHL salary cap to increase from $64.3 million this year to somewhere in the neighborhood of $70 million next season. That could leave the Red Wings with about $20 million to re-sign some of their own players or to spend on free agents.

"There are so many different avenues to try and build a team," he said. "We certainly used the draft but unrestricted free agency is an important tool for us, maybe the most important. If you can make a trade, they're not easy to do, but you make a trade.

"We will continue to draft and always look to see who the best unrestricted free agents are and try to add one or two of them as we go along."

Devellano scoffed at the notion that the Red Wings' roster needs to be torn apart and rebuilt because the club is too old. He said other than Lidstrom (42), Tomas Holmstrom (39) and Todd Bertuzzi (37), most players are still in their prime or approaching it.

"You take those three players away ... the team is not really old," Devellano said. "We want to try and remain competitive. We don't see any reason to tear down the team. We don't think our fans want us to tear down the team. I think they want us to do whatever we can do to win.

"I don't know why we would tear up the team with players like Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk and Jimmy Howard and Johan Franzen. I'm not sure why we would do that. Tearing up the team means you're going to miss the playoffs. We did have 102 points this year.

"People can say we're getting older. Yeah, that is true. We are but certainly our older players for many years have been our best players. We can be faulted for getting older. Our older players were very, very good."

One change that could be coming is between the pipes.

While Devellano said there's no question Jimmy Howard is Detroit's No. 1 goaltender, he expects Joey MacDonald and prospect Petr Mrazek of the OHL's Ottawa 67's to the netminders for the Grand Rapids Griffins next season.

And he sounded like the club might part ways with backup Ty Conklin, who signed a one-year contract last year but struggled behind Howard for much of the season.

"We've talked about trying to upgrade the defense," Devellano said. "We've talked about trying to get a forward who maybe can score. Well, it wouldn't be so bad to try and upgrade in goal behind jimmy Howard if we can."

Email Brendan Savage at bsavage@mlive.com, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/BrendanSavage and like MLive.com's Red Wings page on Facebook