Looking Ahead to 09—10: Three Red Wings Who Must Step Up

Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Tomas Kopecky, and Ty Conklin have all left Detroit via free agency. If you add Jiri Hudler to that group (he's likely gone one way or another) you have 88 goals, 187 points, and 25 wins walking out the door. That's 30 percent of the Red Wings' goals and 49 percent of their wins last season. With only about $1.7 million of cap space and 21 players already under contract (this is assuming Justin Abdelkader will be on the team), it's pretty safe to say that the current Red Wings will be picking up the slack. Here are three players who will need to have big years in order for the Red Wings to stay on top of the NHL's Western Conference.