from Max Bultman of The Athletic,

At present, the Red Wings are at 47 of the maximum 50 contracts, according to CapFriendly. That shouldn’t pose an issue since a handful of those contracts (including those of Trevor Daley, Mike Green, Jonathan Ericsson and Jimmy Howard) expire as unrestricted free agents after the season. Of the prospects on Detroit’s reserve list, whom Yzerman must either sign or relinquish the right to do so by this summer, only goalie prospect Victor Brattstrom looks like a solid bet to do so. There are prospects Detroit could choose to sign earlier than it has to (in order to bring them over from Europe or lure them from college, for example) but still, even if the Red Wings wanted to sign a couple of outside free agents, they could, in theory, bring all their RFAs back.

But that doesn’t seem likely. Whether because of prospect development, planning for future moves, or simply an evaluation that certain pieces don’t fit, at least some of the Red Wings’ pending restricted free-agent forwards are likely going to have to head elsewhere after this season....

With one caveat: I won’t get into the big three of Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Bertuzzi in this piece. They’re all obvious locks to bring back (barring a trade of some kind) and I’ll go more in-depth on their situations and potential contracts later on....

On the inside track
Robby Fabbri: Let’s start with the most immediately successful of the Red Wings’ in-season trades because he’s the most obvious candidate to be back next season.

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