Story provided by mlive.com's Ansar Khan:

Red Wings, forward Tomas Holmstrom agree on two-year contract extension

DETROIT -- Tomas Holmstrom was a late-round, draft-day gem the Detroit Red Wings unearthed in 1994, and the 10th-round pick (257th overall) soon became the premier net-front presence in the NHL.

He has taken a lot of abuse from opponents and tolerated much pain. But doing the dirty work has its rewards.

Holmstrom will continue to provide the Red Wings with a valuable dimension, after agreeing Thursday to a two-year contract extension.

"I'm very excited about it; I know Tomas is, too,'' Howard Gourwitz, Holmstrom's agent, told Booth Newspapers. "It's a real honor to play for one team your entire career. To have won four Stanley Cups is a dream come true. He's really excited and he's proud to stay here.''

Gourwitz declined to reveal details of the contract. A league source said the deal averages $1.875 million a season, a slight decrease from Holmstrom's $2.25 million salary last season.

Holmstrom, 37, has played 13 seasons in Detroit and likely will finish his NHL career as a Red Wing.

"He has the greatest work ethic; if we all worked like that we'd all be superstars,'' Gourwitz said. "Tomas and Annelie (his wife) have enjoyed life in Detroit. They're looking forward to another good year.''

After an injury-plagued 2008-09 season (hernia, knee, back), Holmstrom flourished this past season. He was second on the team with 25 goals -- including a club-leading 13 on the power play -- and fourth with 45 points in 68 games. He missed 13 games in January with a broken foot.

Holmstrom had four goals and three assists in 12 playoff games.

The Pitea, Sweden, native has 214 goals and 255 assists in 879 career regular season games.

With Holmstrom in the fold, the Red Wings have 17 players signed for 2010-11 at a salary-cap figure of $52.3 million. The cap is expected to rise from $56.8 million to approximately $58 million.

General manager Ken Holland's next order of business is re-signing big forward Todd Bertuzzi, who earned $1.5 million last season and has indicated a desire to stay.

The club also will re-sign restricted free-agent forwards Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Patrick Eaves and Drew Miller, and possibly defenseman Derek Meech.

The future of unrestricted free agents Kirk Maltby and Andreas Lilja are uncertain. Forward Jason Williams and defenseman Brett Lebda won't be re-signed.

This signing is not surprising, but I'm skeptical of Holmstrom's value to this team beyond his play in front of the net on the power play. Whereas in past years he was still able to contribute in 5-on-5 situations, it has become more and more evident over the course of the past season and in particular, during the playoffs this spring that Holmstrom may not be a Top 6 forward in this league anymore.

That being said, he can still provide value to this team strictly based on his play creating havoc in front of the opposition's goal. I think the Wings were hoping to sign him for no more than $1.6 or 1.7 per season, but at the end of the day, given the warrior Holmstrom has been for Detroit over all of these years, the reported $3.75 million over 2 years seems fair to both sides.

Despite Homer's return and the expected return of Todd Bertuzzi, I still believe the Red Wings are lacking some offensive goalscoring on the wings amongst their top 2 lines. Even if Jiri Hudler returns to the hockey club next season, I am of the belief Ken Holland should be active this off-season attempting to land a talented goal-scoring winger via free agency or trade.

Over the weekend, I'll bring forward a couple of reasonable personnel ideas for Ken Holland and the Wings' management staff to help aid their hockey clubs chances of returning to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010-11.


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