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Red Wings aim to lock up Holmstrom and Lidstrom

It’s very rare these days to see a player stay their entire career with one team. With the salary cap and free agency, it’s tough for teams to hold on to the players they’ve drafted. The Detroit Red Wings are confident they can keep not one bet two of their franchise players, as Nicklas Lidstrom and Tomas Holmstrom approach free agency.

Holmstrom, it seems, will be the first priority for Detroit as they try to lock down both players before free agency begins. From Chris McCosky of The Detroit News -

“Detroit has been so good to me over the years,” said Holmstrom, who will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. “I have been fortunate to be part of four Stanley Cup teams here. I want to stay here and finish my career here.”

There’s no rush, however. Ken Holland, the Red Wings GM, says that the team will get both players signed but only for the right price.

“If we were talking about a player who was 28, was an unrestricted free agent and had some opportunities (to sign elsewhere), there would probably be a little more urgency,” Holland said. “But Nick is 39 and Homer is 37. Both have good hockey left in them, both have been playing great and we want both to play for us next year.

“Probably at the end of the year we will sit down and work out a (salary) number.”

You have to admire the Red Wings for wanting to keep two of their most best players, but it’s going to be tough to get away from the “Detroit is too old” argument that is cropping up more and more each year. Of course, Lidstrom and Holmstrom are more than just ‘old dudes’, and both still seem to have plenty of fuel left in the tank. What will be interesting will be to see how much each player signs for, and how their salaries affect the inevtable re-tooling the Red Wings will do.