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Red Wings lose rights to 12 Eleven Europeans become free agents; Haskins re-enters draft ... The Detroit Red Wings lost the rights to 12 prospects on Thursday, opting not to sign them by the 5 p.m. deadline. Andreas Jamtin was the most high-profile non-signing. The 6-foot, 191-pound winger is a hard-nosed agitator who combined for nine goals and eight assists for 17 points and 109 penalty minutes in 45 games this season between the Swedish and Finnish elite leagues. The Red Wings also lost the rights to 10 other Europeans: forwards Tomek Valtonen, Jari Tolsa, David Engblom, Johan Forsander, Per Backer, Christian Soderstrom, Calle Steen and Jimmie Svensson and defensemen David Petrasek and Johan Berggren. All become free agents. Also not signed was Tyler Haskins, a 6-foot, 185-pound center with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors. Haskins had a breakthrough campaign in the Ontario Hockey League, producing 24 goals and 51 assists for 75 points in 56 games. Haskins re-enters the draft. The Red Wings did not lose the rights to Miroslav Blatak, who is a Group IV free agent. The 6-foot, 183-pound defenseman filed paperwork to classify himself as a “defected player” under a rarely-used clause in the old collective bargaining agreement. The Red Wings hold his rights for at least another year. He could technically sign this summer, but won’t — and might never. “It all depends on his development,” said Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill on Wednesday night. “We watched him at the Sweden Games (with the Czech national team) and he’s got to get stronger, a lot stronger. If he gets stronger, it’s a possibility.” In other news, the Red Wings will get another year of service out of goaltender Drew MacIntyre. Though he was in the third season of a three-year deal, his contract slid a year because of a technicality in the old collective bargaining agreement. MacIntyre hopes to earn a job in the American Hockey League in 2006-07, but might not because of the Red Wings’ goaltending depth. Earlier this week, the Red Wings signed center Evan McGrath to a three-year contract, defenseman Jonathan Ericsson to a two-year deal, and goaltender Stefan Liv to a one-year pact. NOTE: Ericsson was listed on RedWingsCentral.com as having a signing deadline of June 1, 2007. That information was erroneous. His deadline was Thursday. The same applies to Berggren and Soderstrom. Matthew Wuest is a freelance hockey writer. You can contact him by email at wuest@redwingscentral.com. |
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