Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press
From Thomas Vanek to Stephen Weiss, the Detroit Red Wings have had some hits and misses in recent free agency.
They enter Saturday’s opening of the market with a short shopping list: Spend what little money is available on a defenseman. There isn’t much room in the budget, as most of the $7.9 million available will go towards resigning Tomas Tatar, Andreas Athanasiou and Xavier Ouellet.
The Wings have been much bigger players in July in years past, so here is a look back at who was a boon and who was a bust going back to 2012.