Report: Several Red Wings players are leaving town

With free agency set to begin at the beginning of next month, the Detroit Red Wings are in prime position to make some additions to the team that will hopefully result in their postseason drought finally being broken. 

And while there could be some new faces in the lineup for next year, there will be a few names from last season's team that will not be donning the Winged Wheel in 2023-24 - namely, Pius Suter and Alex Chiasson. Additionally, the Red Wings are reportedly going to be moving on from Alex Nedeljkovic, Adam Erne, Jordan Oesterle and Robert Hagg. 

Per Detroit Hockey Now, both Suter and Chiasson were offered one-year deals, but were rebuffed: 

"Suter was offered a one-year pact to play a third season in Detroit. However, the veteran forward wants to see if he can get a multi-year deal on the open market.

"The offer to Chiasson was a one-year, two-way deal. Again, according to the source, Chiasson’s camp wants to see if he can secure a full NHL contract from another club by entering into the UFA fray on July 1."

"As for Detroit’s other UFAs – goalies Alex Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg, defensemen Jordan Oesterle, Robert Hagg and Mark Pysyk and forward Adam Erne, the NHL source indicated none had received a contract offer to date from the Red Wings."

If Nedeljkovic's time in Detroit is through, it would bring to an end a tenure that began with plenty of promise and potential, but ended mostly in disappointment given his rocky performances in net in last season. 

Suter's cap hit with Detroit of $3.25 million along with Chiasson's $750,000 frees up $4 million, while the combination of Nedeljkovic and Erne came out to a combined $5.1 million. Additionally, the contracts of Hellberg, Oesterle and Hagg coming off the books will free up approximately $2.9 million in cap space.

Right away, that's around $12 million in cap space for Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman to play around with. What will he use it for this summer? Perhaps a trade and new contract for Farmington Hills native Alex DeBrincat?