Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom To Make Decision On Future Soon

After watching his good friend Nicklas Lidstrom walk away from the sport he loves earlier in the week, Detroit Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom is expected to make a decision on whether he will play next season in the coming weeks.

"It's probably coming soon," Holmstrom told MLive.com on Thursday after Lidstrom's press conference. "I have to figure it out and I really don't know right now. I go back and forth and try to figure out my body."

Holmstrom has played for 15 NHL seasons, amassing 243 goals and 287 assists for 530 points. He is one of just six Detroit players all-time to have suited up for 1,000 games, and will be remembered as one of the most successful goalie screeners of the last decade regardless of when he decides to walk away.

Despite playing 74 times during the past season, the veteran winger tallied just 11 goals in 2011-12, his lowest output in a ten-year span. Even to most casual observers it has been painfully obvious that age and health have caught up with the bruising power forward over the last two seasons, and that another injury-plagued campaign might simply be too much to take. It makes perfect sense that Holmstrom would leave the game in the same year where his Hall of Fame buddy also said goodbye, but that doesn't erase the legions of hockey fans in Motown that would be enamored to have him back for a farewell tour.

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