Detroit Avoids Arbitration by Signing Filppula

The Detroit Red Wings avoided a potentially ugly trip to arbitration and continued the off-season phase of their bid to repeat today when they signed restricted free agent forward Valtteri Filppula to a five-year, $15 million contract.

The 24-year-old Finn filed for arbitration on July 5th, taking himself off the Kevin Lowe-syle RFA poaching market in the process. The intervening weeks have been agonizingly quiet for Wings fans hoping to see #51 sign a contract so this outcome is a welcome one, though the $3 million-a-year reality of the deal puts a damper on the news. That's about $500,000 more than the Wings were hoping to spend, but the length of the deal should make it a bargain by the end.

Filppula is something of a poor man's Henrik Zetterberg at this stage in his career. He's got great offensive skills and a keen sense for the defensive side of the game. He's frustrating to Wings fans for his penchant for falling down at inopportune times, but he brings enormous value to the team overall. His play in the Stanley Cup Finals was at least one of the non-flu-related reasons for Evgeni Malkin's disappearance and he was a major contributor to his linemate Johan Franzen's incredible post-season. The kid is clearly a major part of the Wings' future and has made himself a key part of the current squad ever since forcing his way into the lineup with a strong training camp in 2006.
It's expected that Filppula will remain the center of Detroit's second line with Johan Franzen and new Red Wing Marian Hossa skating on his wings. That should lead to a marked improvment in his numbers. This contract and the prospect of playing with #93 and #81 next season should give Fil (or "Wally") something more to celebrate when he takes the Stanley Cup to his hometown next week.

The deal leaves the Wings with under $500,000 in cap space and 22 players under contract. Broken down by expected lines and pairings, the team looks like this:

Holmstrom-Zetterberg-Datsyuk
Franzen-Filppula-Hossa
Cleary-Draper-Maltby
Hudler-Helm-Samuelsson
Kopecky

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Lebda-Lilja
Meech
Ericsson

Osgood
Conklin

UFA Chris Chelios remains unsigned at this point, as do Aaron Downey and Darren McCarty. The team has indicated it would like to carry 13 forwards, eight defensemen and two goalies, which doesn't leave much room for the current unsigned players.

Darren Helm and Jonathan Ericsson are able to return to the AHL without having to clear waivers, so it's entirely possible that's where they'll be this coming season. They both played extremely well when in the big league lineup, so they'd be unfortunate victims of an insanely deep team. Assuming their demotion, that leaves a final spot open for Chelios to fight for on the blueline and the possibility for Ville Leino to become just the second ever Finnish Red Wing. Training camp will be one heck of a battle for guys that are on the fringe, which extends up to the third pairing on the defensive side of things. The losers will face face either demotion or the trading block.

However these final lineup questions shake out, the Wings will remain an extremely talented team. All of the main pieces are in place and all that remains is for the support roles to be finalized. Those hoping for the downfall of the Red Machine had better hope for a post-Cup hangover because, if anything, they've just gotten better this post-season.