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Report: Wings open to dealing Filppula, Tootoo

Ken Holland

The Red Wings have a number of questions at the forward position.

Over the next six days, they’ll look to answer them.

Detroit will look to trade one of its surplus forwards -- rumored to be Jordin Tootoo -- leading up to or at the NHL Entry Draft, according to MLive.com.

Failing that, the Wings will make a decision on Monday, the day after the draft, to possibly use a compliance buyout. The the leading candidates are believed to be Mikael Samuelsson (one year remaining, $3 million) or Carlo Colaiacovo (one year remaining, $2.5 million).

It’s thought Tootoo could also be bought out. He has two years remaining on his deal (at $1.9 million per) and fell out of Mike Babcock’s favor midway through the season -- Tootoo was a frequent healthy scratch down the stretch, and only appeared in one playoff game.

The club will also explore the option of trading Valtteri Filppula’s negotiating rights should the two sides fail to reach an agreement on a new deal.

Filppula, 29, is in the final year of a five-year, $15 million deal and is rumored to be seeking a new long-term contract worth more than $5 million annually.

Detroit is reportedly not willing to commit that kind of term or money to the Finnish forward.

All told, the Wings currently have 14 forwards under contract and are talking about deals for Filppula, Dan Cleary and Damien Brunner.

As such, it’s also believed Cory Emmerton could be made available in a trade as well.