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Red Wings will be looking to spend big this summer

Ken Holland

Detroit Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland winces as he talks to reporters after the Red Wings lost to the San Jose Sharks 3-2 in Game 7 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup Western Conference semifinal playoff series Thursday, May 12, 2011, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

AP

It’s rare to see the Detroit Red Wings season come to an end this early, but with an offseason ahead of them that sees a lot of questions and a ton of money coming off their salary cap, Detroit might be ready to make a big splash in free agency.

Red Wings GM Ken Holland tells Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press he’s looking forward to the summer and looks to make the Wings a deeper team once again.

“We have lots of cap space, and there’ll be players available July 1,” general manager Ken Holland said. “We’re going to look at free agency, but the NHL is so tight now. The days of us having way more depth than the opposition or one extra star, those are over for everybody. It’s a league that’s very, very close.”

Among those players potentially available are Devils captain Zach Parise and Predators stud defenseman Ryan Suter. With Detroit’s forwards getting up there in years and their defense looking at perhaps one more season with Nicklas Lidstrom and the departure of Brad Stuart, either player would provide a big lift.

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock knows it’s a big time for the team and he hopes that with the extra $22 million in cap space his team will be big spenders.

“We have tons of money and if we can use our cap space to get high-end free agents, we have a shot to get right back on top,” Babcock said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, two days after Nashville eliminated Detroit. “If we’re fortunate in free agency, we won’t have to look at going in another direction.”

Getting into the trade market doesn’t sound like a good time especially with the amount of talent available right away.