Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

Free Press sports writer Helene St. James answers your Twitter questions on the Detroit Red Wings. You can follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.

Helene St. James: The Wings will take a run at John Tavares if he does not resign with the New York Islanders, but bear in mind that while teams can try to resign their own players a year out from unrestricted free agency, other teams cannot pursue Tavares until he becomes a UFA in summer of 2018. As for cap space, right now they are a little under $6 million if the cap ceiling stays the same for next season, but there is so much still to be determined. The Wings will try to move one of their goaltenders – Jimmy Howard ($5.3 million salary cap hit) and Petr Mrazek ($4 million), which would open up space. On the other hand, Tomas Tatar and Andreas Athanasiou (restricted) are among those requiring new contracts. There is also the fact the Wings will lose a player in the expansion draft.

HSJ: Rub a genie lamp and the Wings would ask for a high-end, offensively capable defenseman. If they could clone any of their former players since 1990, it’d be Nicklas Lidstrom. Unfortunately, this is a common lament around the NHL. Another GM looking for an offensive defenseman? Tampa Bay’s Steve Yzerman. What could facilitate matters is that teams such as Anaheim and Minnesota have more good defensemen than they can protect in the expansion draft. Plus, as discussed previously, there are teams such as Calgary, Winnipeg, Dallas and more that need to address goaltending issues, and the Wings are in the market to trade either Howard or Mrazek.

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HSJ: Scouting is high on the agenda, both in preparing for the June draft, and in watching NHL playoff games in preparation for July 1/possible off-season moves. Exit interviews largely were taken care of before general manager Ken Holland went to Slovakia last week for the U18 championship. There is still the matter of goaltending coach Jeff Salajko, who needs a new contract as he was signed to one year when he was promoted last May. There’ll be lots of meetings leading up to the draft and free agency.

HSJ: Beyond goaltending, I think they will try to move a forward or two, because of the expansion draft. Riley Sheahan drew interest at the trade deadline – but as dry as he was this season, he’s a big guy to have at center. Luke Glendening might draw interest from Toronto, as he was a favorite of Mike Babcock’s. Gustav Nyquist had 30 points his last 35 games. The Wings should be able to put together a good package as they try for that upgrade on defense. And come July 1, they will pursue Thomas Vanek if he’s available.

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Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.

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