The Red Wings have signed their second free agent defenseman, Ian White, formally of the San Jose Sharks. Another defensive d-man brought in by the Wings for 2 years and $5.75 million, who scored 26 points last season with the Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, and the Sharks. White actually took a pay cut to come to Detroit, he made $3 million last season, and by the way the market has been early in free agency he probably could have made a lot more with another team.
White is more of a defensive defenseman as I mentioned earlier, but he has scored at least 26 points in four of his six seasons as a professional. So expectations for the two seasons, under this contract, for White should be around 30 points and a positive in the plus/minus category. With Lidstrom planted on the first line as the only guarantee, where White could end up on the blue line with the Red Wings could be anyway from a first line pairing with the captain, to a depth defenseman looking for minutes amongst the third pairing. With the acquisitions of White and Commodore the Wings have a solid depth on the blue line but are still missing the top four defenseman they lost when Brian Rafalski decided to retire this offseason.