The question of whether or not Pavel Datsyuk would head to Russia after playing the final year of his contract has been answered by Pavel himself. Pav will be in Detroit for another 4 years after signing a 3 year extension. Well, that's not true. He can't officially sign until July 5, but he has agreed with the terms of an extension and that's good enough for now.

According to Gary Greenstin, Pav's agent, the deal is worth $23 million. Cap hit is $7.5 million. A bargain, if you ask me. That money was either going to Pavel Datsyuk or it was going to sit around unspent.

What are your thoughts on this news? For me this is up there with the summer of 2001. Painful playoff loss, then unexpected great news in the offseason.

A lot has happened since the last time I posted something. I know I said that we’d keep you up to speed, then pretty much disappeared. Oops. Won’t happen again. Until it does.

Updates after the jump:

Here’s a bit from our NOHS mailbag, in which we get sacks and sacks of letters. This one comes to us from a reader in our Desert Contingent here in Arizona, and it regards the issue of our self-proclaimed rivals in the Phoenix Coyotes and, at a larger issue, Detroit’s move to the ranks of the eastern teams and what it means for us fans left behind out west.

Sully - What do you think will happen with PHX ownership issues? The only drawback of moving to the East for me is that I can only get to 1 Red Wings game a year now. I really hope that PHX stays around and would still go a couple of other games if they do.

First things first: Phoenix deal appears to be, if not stabilizing, slowing its descent in the pit of quicksand. Renaissance Sports & Entertainment is the name of the group actually vying for ownership, and a real group with a real name is more than this saga has had in 4 years. Their next challenge is a lease with the City of Glendale, which the citizens there seem to back when it comes to majority votes, so I think that’ll work out.

Now that the offseason is here, let’s take a look at whose contract is up and who needs to be bought out. This will be an interesting summer, to say the least. We’ve got a superstar to keep, the cap is going down, a bunch of UFAs, RFAs and some possible buyouts. The UFA market seems poor right now, but a few compliance buyouts would liven things right up.

More after the jump:

The kids are all right.

This was the first time since I can remember...there was not ONE mention of the Red Wings' age being a hindrance to their play-off performance.  I take that back...they were actually talking about the YOUTH of the organ-i-zation...when was the last time THAT happened?

There's a lot of reasons to optimistic about this team's future.  The Free Agent market may be weak but we have a glutton of talented youth who will be looking to fill (and make) some spots in next season's roster.  Case in point - the Grand Rapids Griffins are just one game away from the Calder Cup Finals...top prize of the AHL.

Read on, my friends...

Obviously - this isn't the kind of thing I'd like to be writing about here in the early parts of June.  But at least the Red Wings gave us great hockey almost all the way through May.

...Yeah I know it wasn't ALWAYS great hockey.  But at least we have a team that you can actually be proud of.  Tell you what...we'll come back to that.

The point of this post was to kick-off our post season news reporting.  I know that I didn't do a whole lot through this whacky half season, but I'm going to try really hard to get back to the roots of this blog and keep you as up-to-date as I can...and I know my team will help me out with a lot.

A lot of people we ragging on The Mule, Johan Franzen this season.  The compliance buy-out was tossed around quite a bit.  Well guess what?  It ain't gonna happen.

Make the jump to find out why.

It wasn't the ending we deserved, but it was the one we needed right now. Losing is the greatest teacher in hockey. If you think this hurts for you, I promise you Brendan Smith and Gustav Nyquist are dying inside. They, along with the rest of the kids on this team, will come back in October more motivated than they've ever been.

For Detroit to sweep Philly, they needed to get swept by New Jersey.

For Detroit to come back from 0-2 against Vancouver, they needed to blow a 2-0 lead to Colorado and L.A.

For Detroit to ______ they needed to lose to Chicago in 2013.

More after the jump:

Simple.  Shoot high and it's a goal.  Especially glove hand. 

If you haven't, check out Josh Howard's post below.  

LGRW. 

Say dang... that is one handsome Captain.

Tell me this team was supposed to be here... If you say they are, you're lying.  We've had an amazing season and it could end tonight to a "complete team" as some say.  If we're going down, it'll be with class.  We have nothing to be ashamed of for tonight we make our stand.  It isn't our house, but that doesn't mean we can't win in it.  These aren't all veterans, but that doesn't mean they can't play like it.  This team was once left for dead and when they entered the playoffs, everyone said they should have stayed dead.  You know what... screw that.  I'm okay with being down, but this team isn't out until the final horn in Chicago. 

There was an e-mail thread going back and forth while I was on the road today (25,000+ miles driven since mid January) between the NOHS team and myself.  Josh was talking about how the Wings had been written off even before the play-offs...then again in round 1 and then twice here in round 2.  Twig added this gem:

Chicago is playing to save face and escape with dignity. Wings are playing for history.

I fired back an e-mail with my thoughts that had been gathering like a storm since last night.  Our resident stupid goalie, Chris...thought it would make a good post.  So here it goes..

After the jump.