Despite negotiations reportedly not making much progress as of Thursday night, the Detroit Red Wings re-signed forward Drew Miller just as NHL free agency was about to open on Friday. Miller's deal, according to Nick Kypreos, is for two years and is worth $1.65 million. That means Miller's cap hit is only $825,000 per season.
Miller joins Jonathan Ericsson and Patrick Eaves as players that have re-signed or agreed to terms with the Red Wings. Ericsson agreed to terms with the Red Wings on Thursday night, and Eaves did the same on Friday morning. Earlier this week it wasn't clear if any of these players would be re-signed before free agency opened, but now all three are set to return to the Red Wings for the next two or three years.
With Miller and Eaves re-signing and the Red Wings withdrawing their offer to Jaromir Jagr, they are pretty much set at forward. If a trade were to happen a spot could be opened up, but for now it looks like no more moves need to made at forward, meaning Kris Draper will not likely be offered a deal to return to Detroit as a player.
Detroit now needs to worry about finding a top-four defenseman and a backup goaltender, as those are the two biggest needs for the team moving forward.