The rumors of their demise have not been greatly exaggerated?

With Suter it apparently came down to wanting to play with best freind Parise and no other team that made a formal bid for him was willing to effectively make him the highest paid defenseman in the game. The cap hit is horrible and the Wings and the other teams in the mix werent willing to reach above the 7.0 mill level. Schultz said from the start he didnt want to play for an American team and last i checked Detroit is still part of the U.S., even the Wild couldnt get him to listen and many thought they would have a shot. That doesnt make them suddenly undesireable....they certainly could have committed cap suicide to land Suter and Parise but chose to be smart enough not to mortgage their future on the backs of 2 or 3 players. Same as always. If we assume Detroit isnt a potential destination of choice then we can assume a lot of other teams who were denied a face to face with Suter are in bigger trouble and we can assume that Minnesota Wild will suddenly become a Cup favorite and destination of choice for all the top free agents going forward? No team gets all the guys they have on their wish list. Wait until next season when the Wild have to go to Backstrom and ask him to take a pay cut to stay given they are tight to the cap as is and they have a few UFA and RFA guys next year. And very little on the blueline besides Suter. Just because the Wings or any other team wisely didnt blow the bank to make a statement doesnt assure their demise....we have heard for the past 15 years all the haters who mistakenly underestimate the Wings. We are fine with that. If they dont make a deal to land some defensive depth there will rightly be cause for concern but this isnt Hollands first go around with losing out on a coveted guy and he seems to keep them competitive. But if you want to write them off that is fine, eventually you might be right but I wouldnt count on it just yet.

Edit....to a point I might agree but the reality is the Wings almost never pursue high end free agents. If we look at their big signings since the cap went into effect the Wings have only signed Rafalski and Hossa and not one other major free agent. They paid a premium at the time for Rafalski (6 mill., which was considered eccessive by many) and got Hossa only because he felt Detroit was better than Pittsburgh and his only goal was winning a Cup. And the Wings would not commit a lot of years to either....in fact Hossa only got a one year make good deal while Rafalski got 4 years. The Wings have avoided going after the overpaid long term seeking players for obvious reason. And again perspective usually gets in the way of fact.....virtually the entire Wings roster is homegrown talent or reclaimation projects that worked out. Every single one of their current defensive group were Detroit picks along with Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Filppula, Helm, Abdelkader, Nyquist, Mursak, Emmerton (plus goalie Jimmy Howard). Bertuzzi, Eaves, Miller and Cleary were all guys who were operating on last chance deals who the Wings got solid production out of. So if the haters took the time to see past their own misperceptions the one thing that isnt true is Detroit has not been a "destination of choice" for high end free agents once the cap went into effect. Yes they landed some pretty impressive guys (Hull, Shanny, Hasek, Cujo) pre cap era because Mr.Illitch was willing to pay top dollar to be on top. The current picks who arent here include some very high skill forwards and the Wings have Xavier Oullet who was regarded as the 2nd best defenseman to #2 overall pick Ryan Murray according to the coaches poll in the CHL at seasons end and Ryan Sproul is considered an even better prospect than Xavier. As for Hudler the Wings informed him they were heading in a different direction after they werent pleased with his lack of playoff production (again) so they didnt "lose him"...they told him to find different employment. So reality is far different than perception since they havent bothered to pursue hardly any UFA players in the past 8 years....before that they got pretty much who they wanted because money wasnt an issue. The system is loaded but they go slow with development as they always did and the idea they have a roster full of other teams top players is simply false and has been so for many years. 2 UFA signings in the cap era and one major miss on Suter....that is it. The top guys still give the "hometeam discount" as a look a capgeek would tell anybody. Kronwall signed for far less than he could have gotten in free agentcy....look at all the silly deals signed by defensemen the past 2 years and then see what Kronner is taking....kinda says it all.

They are certainly on the decline. The salary cap era may be the end of the Red Wing era

"is Detroit no longer seen as a choice destination"

Think about that for a second. Detroit. Who wants to live in Detroit? I'm sure for the Russians who are amazed by running water Detroit is just fine, but for everyone else, why would you choose to live there?

I think even before Lidstrom retired players realized they have just as good odds to win a cup elsewhere, and they also don't have to live in an armpit while doing so.

I was warning DET fans that a medicore defence (top pairing of Kronwall and White) and Gustavsson in goal is a movie I've seen 2/3 of (I do think it will emphasize how good Lidstrom was in terms of playing brutally tough minutes).

Best of luck to Parise and Suter in MIN. That NW Division could end up getting tough if MIN comes good and all that young talent in EDM jells.

I am sure they will be lower in the minds of most pundits for next season. For what it's worth they did manage to acquire that highly acclaimed Swiss free agent, Dammien Brunner on a 1 year entry level contract.

Its a fair question. But I think any original 6 team has a special feeling for free agents that want to wear the seater of one of those teams. They'll be fine in the future.

Don't you wish...