Did Detroit Red Wings' forward Pavel Datsyuk tip his hand as to future plans during a Tweet this week to Justin Verlander congratulating the Detroit Tigers' ace on his record-breaking contract?

It depends on how you want to interpret things.

Datsyuk might have just been kidding – which seems to be the likely scenario – or he might have been hinting that the Red Wings won't have enough money to re-sign him when his contract expires after next season.

Here's the Tweet Datsyuk posted Tuesday:

"@JustinVerlander congrats on the new contract! Mr. Ilitch spent all his money. Nothing left for me :-)."

Verlander's response?

"@Datsyuk13 thanks man. Dinner is on me."

In case you missed it, Verlander became the highest-paid pitcher in Major League Baseball history last week, when the Tigers signed him to a contract extension that will pay him $180 million over the next seven seasons.

Mike Ilitch owns both the Tigers and Red Wings and it won't be long until signing Datsyuk becomes one of the Red Wings' top priorities.

Datsyuk, 34,

During training camp, Datsyuk told MLive.com that it was his dream to eventually return to Russia and play fulltime in his country.

"It's my kind of dream to come back and enjoy it with Russian fans because they pull for me in the beginning,'' he said. "You never know how career go.

"Home (Russia) always good. It's long time don't play in Russia (since 2004-05). Lots of Russian friends. Always welcome home; it's nice, positive. You never know next time to play in front of Russian fans.''

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