Rafalski’s contract was signed before he turned 35, so his cap hit would come off if he retired. Only contracts signed after the age 35 cutoff count towards that rule.

I can’t imagine he’s healthy. The back problems he has been having seem to have been nagging him – it was noticeable in the playoffs as well…

I hope the news / and sentiments are wrong – still an awesome player w/ great breakout passes.

tho 6m cap hit could go a long way towards getting weber… ;)

Heres hoping Rafalski stays!

I’ll be keeping my eye on this. It’s not a stretch, when you consider his injury issues. I wonder if his back/groin (the two biggest problem areas it sees for him) are preventing him from performing at a level he’s comfortable with.

of his play the past year. Some beautiful, long breakout passes – yes. But also, a lot of turnovers.

Kindl and Smith just got saucer eyes at the thought of all the ice time and money that would be freed up for them.

did a lot of good for us over the past few years…but that is a lot of money for Ken Holland to play and make some magic with

for the first person to suggest the Wings sign Kaberle.

Some unrestricted free agent defensemen from CapGeek. In no particular order just one’s that caught my eye:

Bieksa, Ehrhoff and yesterday’s playoff hero Sami Salo from Vancuover?
Steal Eric Brewer from Stevie Yzerman?
Chronically injured, but fantastic power play performer Andrei Markov from Montréal?
The tough, but fair Ed Jovanovski of Windsor?

Brian Rafalski is/was a hell of a player… this is sad news.

but tsn has confirmed that rafalski is retiring. Great d-man, led the devils in 2000 and 2001 to cups (yeah stevens and neidermayer were around) and led detroit to that cup in 2008. I wish him the best. Looks like christian ehrhoff will be on detroit’s radar.

I loved Brian for what he did for this team. He was a phenomenal player and his career was plagued with some troublesome, never ending injuries.

Thanks for the memories Brian. Great career.

Now let’s sign Wisnewski and Bieksa.

I knew he has been having issues with his health the last couple of years…when healthy Rafalki is one of the best puck movers in the game. This saddens me.

 I REALLY REALLY hope Lidstrom comes back now. I also really hope they don’t break the bank on big E too.

It will def be interesting to see what they do with the $6 Mil coming off the books…i know there is a lot of talk about Weber but isn’t he a RFA? Lets not forget that Modano and his 1.25 are gone too. I wonder what they will do with Rusty? Draper and Ozzie?

Sad to see Rafalski go but what good is the money if you can’t function on a day to day basis. Cap space is looking better for future moves. If we can’t sign a star 6 million defensemen how about two good 3 million dollar defense or a variation there of?

Per Puck Daddy and Freep, Holland says he hasn’t been informed yet. Both sources make it sound like he is expecting it, however.

Rafalski’s been great, the fact that he’s planning to retire is kind of surprising.
But I guess the younger the defense, the better. Hopefully we’ll pick up some great defenders in the summer.

If the cap moves to the projected $62 million, we should have only $41 million tied up. That’s $21 million in cap space. Holland gets to spend big for the first time in the cap era.

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Bertuzzi-Filpula-Franzen
Cleary-Helm-Abdelkader
Hudler-?-?

? – Stuart
Kronwall – ?
Kindl – ?

Howard
?

So we need a fourth line for sure. That likely means that Miller and Eaves are both back (especially now that we have more cap room) and we will either go with Drapes again, assuming he doesn’t retire, or pull from the Griffins. We could make a play for a John Madden or Andrew Brunette, but I doubt we would. They may demand too much for it to be worth it.

Hopefully Lidstrom resigns, otherwise we are screwed here. We definitely need to sign a top 4 defenseman either way. If Lidstrom retires as well, though… I really think we have no choice other than to make a play for Weber. And that isn’t just my unnatural love for the man speaking there… he is the best available and the only free agent I feel would make a great Wing.

If we don’t get Weber and the unthinkable happens, who else can we go after? I don’t feel comfortable with Stuart and Kronwall being our top pair with Ericsson (Rafi retiring is the best thing that could have happened for him) and Kindl on the second line. Do we push Smith onto the ice before he is done ripening?

… can’t decide how I feel about this. Gotta let it sink in.

First thought was that we’re gonna miss a d-man who shoots right. They’re pretty hard to come by. I know our team has a crap ratio as far as players who shoot left over players who shoot right.

Actually, I think everyone shoots left except for Rafalski and Eaves, if I remember correctly.

i wonder what salary he will take if he comes back again…now that Rafalski is gone i wonder if he would take something in the $5 mill range…not to mention that Kronwall was playing a heck of a lot more minutes in the post season.

Which I sort of hope it doesn’t, I love Rafi, but if it does, I’d be more than happy with Wisniewski or Ehrhoff joining the team- they’re both excellent defencemen capable of putting up 50+ points per season. I be not so happy with Bieksa or Kaberle, I can’t deny I have a personal dislike for both of them, plus Kaberle’s disappearing act in the playoffs isn’t helping my feelings…

To the Ehrhoff era! How sick would that be to send out Lidstrom-Ehroff-Dats-Z-Franzen on a power play? I like Him because he reminds me a lot of Lidstrom, perhaps a little less surgical, but can put pucks on net from deep and knows when to skate up into the play…

It’s a long shot, by long I mean impossible, that we get Shea Weber.

I love Rafa, he’s always been one of my favorite players (I was the one that boldly predicted 50+ points for him this year) but the injuries have killed him. He still has one of the best lead passes in the league, but his defensive ability has greatly declined. He simply isn’t worth $6M anymore. I think he’s doing it for the team, and it only makes my respect for him increase. I would love for him to join the organization whether it be scouting or front office.

As for his replacement, I think I’m in agreement with many here. We need a Wisniewski or Ehrhoff to come in; anything less could be a major blow. I can’t even imagine losing Lids at this point. I also love Markov’s offensive ability, which is what we’re losing in Rafa, and I’m willing to risk his injury history.

I really hope it’s not true

It isn’t happening. It’s not. Stop it. No, seriously, quit it.

he he he…

Maybe he’ll come to Detroit!

I wish he could hang around for another season..but this sucks. I believe Mr.Holland told the FREEP that he has not heard anything yet…from the horse’s mouth…….Christian Ehrhoff anyone..??

I like Raffi – though sometimes he really pisses me off with being a TO machine (last 5 minutes of Game 7!!), but the Wings really need someone as smart as he is on the back-end. I remember early in the season, Raffi was out for 5-7 games or something and when he returned, the PP looked better, the breakouts were better, the whole damn offense was better. Maybe it was against Edmonton (), he came back and had 3 assists in his first game back….idk, I’m sure JJ has the stats on it.

It makes me sad to hear that he’s retiring and I think the Wings will miss him more than we think right now. And he’s a hometown boy from Dearborn, and he’s been a Wings fan his whole life, so if he’s got to retire, he should retire as a Red Wing.

But…the cap space will be nice to have, the back-end being remade will commence, and hopefully, the Wings will honor Raffi and the entire 2008 Cup team with something nice in the not too distant future.

Wisnewski, White, Bieksa, maybe Anton Babchuk, Christian Ehrhoff – any / all of those guys would be an upgrade.

Ehrhoff & Bieksa – nice upgrade over E and Raffi. And they both play with a bit of an edge. They’re both fairly young as well, not to mention we’d be taking from Vancouver and picking up a former Shark.

Ian White – from what I’ve seen in the playoffs, he’s been pretty solid.

Babchuk – idk much about him, but Calgary sure is a physical team.

Wisnewski – my least favorite probably, but still an upgrade over Big Rig.

Jovanovski? – no thanks.

Markov – too fragile (must be Italian…)