Traverse City Record-Eagle

Pro Sports

July 15, 2008

Signing Filppula next priority for Wings

TRAVERSE CITY -- It's been a busy off-season for Detroit Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland.

In the last couple weeks he's signed defensemen Andreas Lilja and Brad Stuart, goalie Ty Conklin and forward Marian Hossa. Now he wants to get Valtteri Filppula's signature on the dotted line.

Filppula, 24, and the Wings are scheduled to go salary arbitration Aug. 1, but Holland is hoping to avoid that.

"The worst case scenario is we go to arbitration and have an award by the 3rd or 4th of August," Holland said. "Ideally, you would like to negotiate a settlement both sides are comfortable with. We're going to ask for a two-year award, which is our right under the CBA (collective bargaining agreement). We've had conversations about a two-year negotiated settlement. I think there's a deal to be made there. I think Bill Zito, Filppula's agent, feels the same way. We are also having conversations about contracts longer than two years. We'll see if there's some common ground. If not, I'm optimistic we can find a way to avoid arbitration and negotiate a two-year."

Signing Hossa, a premier forward, to a one-year contract was Holland's biggest move of the off-season.

"He's (Hossa) the guy who made that happen," Holland said. "Agreeing to a one-year deal allowed to us to fit him into a Red Wings uniform.

"We're lucky. We won the Stanley Cup and we're going to be able to keep our team together -- and we added Marian Hossa. We happened to have a one-year window here where we had some money to spend. We feel good about our team."

Holland's task could be more difficult after next season when Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Mikael Samuelsson and Hossa become unrestricted free agents.

"In the next couple months I would like to start having conversations with their agents to see if we can find a solution to keep them in Red Wing uniforms," Holland said.

-- By Dennis Chase

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