NHL free agency began 7/1.

The Wings started by signing two of the three free agents they wanted to retain. Lidstrom and Osgood. Shanahan preferred to test the market, although it's clear he may still end up back in the red and white. Yzerman is the only other target from their own team the Wings are looking at, and that hinges on his retirement decision.

The Wings have stated that they are looking for an inexpensive, physical defenseman and a veteran goaltender.

Yesterday (7/1) was one of the busiest days in the History of the NHL as far as signing of free agents goes, and the Wings didn't really do anything, aside from Lidstom and Osgood.

Here's some of the other news:

Goalies:

Roloson resigned with Edmonton.

John Grahame left Tampa for Carolina.

Gerber left Carolina for Ottawa.

Brent Johnson resigned with Washington.

Chris Mason stayed with Nashville.

Lalime left St Louis to back up Khabibulin in Chicago.

Forwards:

Elias resigned with NJ.

Scott Thornton left San Jose for LA.

Staal resigned with Carolina.

Matt Cullen left Carolina to sign with the Rangers.

Arnason left Ottawa for Colorado.

Mark Parrish left the LA Kings for Minnesota.

Dallas Drake resigned with St. Louis.

Jamie Langenbrunner resigned with New Jersey.

Defensemen:

Delmore left Columbus for Tampa Bay.

Ed Jovanovski left Vancouver for Phoenix.

Kuba signed with Tampa from Minnesota.

Francis Bouillon resigned with the Habs.

Hal Gill to Toronto from Boston.

Mike Commodore resigned with Carolina.

Kim Johnsson left Philly for Minnesota.

Jay McKee left Buffalo for St. Louis.

Willie Mitchell signed with Vancouver from Dallas.

Corvo left the Kings for Ottawa.

Baumgartner left Vancouver for Philly.

Kubina left Tampa for Toronto.

Rob Blake left Colorado to return back to LA.

Zdeno Chara left Ottawa for Boston.

I'm sure I missed some, since the article in the Freep I was using was published this morning. There is more detail in this article at the DetNews.

We'll see, but I think by making Lidstrom the highest payed player on the team (almost twice as much as the next highest paid player), the Wings have really hurt themselves. I believe his contract is $7.6mil per season for 2 seasons

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