Valtteri Filppula, C
5 years, $15 million
2007-08 Season (With Detroit)
GP G A Pts PIM
78 19 17 36 28
The Red Wings lock up another valuable piece to their puzzle. Filppula is expected to become a very solid second line, playmaking centre. He is pretty close to that now, so locking him up for $3 million per season might become a bargain very quickly. He was headed for arbitration, but signing him long term rules out any possibility of that happening this year or at any point in his career. Filppula might not score tons of goals, but he’ll set his share of them up and like all Red Wing forwards, plays a very sound two-way game. He’s another in a long line of late Red Wing draft picks to become valuable additions to the team in the Motor City.
