Marc Staal, D
This one hurts my heart to be completely honest. However, this is a business and I think that recognizing that Staal is replaceable is going to be helpful in this free agency class. With him being 35 years old, his career will shortly be coming to a close and I feel that he will still be able to earn some money in free agency.
He finished this past season having a +/- of -1 which, given the level of goalie play, is pretty good. Not to mention the veteran leadership he brings to the table. He can definetly find some money from a team looking to bolster their defense with a veteran defenseman. Potentially a team like Vancouver or Winnipeg could be interested in him.
Vancouver is there and they have the offense to make it to the playoffs, they just lack the defense. They got Oliver Ekman-Larsson this past off-season but let’s face it, he’s not as good as everyone thinks he is. He just isn’t. Plain and simple. Therefore, they could be willing to pay a guy like Marc Staal quite a bit of money to come play for them. Same goes for Winnipeg.
Letting Staal go will be hard, but there are a lot of defenseman out there that could be very good fits with the Red Wings. Not to mention the young guys that they have. I don’t expect Staal to be back.