After months of negotiations and speculation the Detroit Red Wings have called a press conference for January 28th where they're expected to announce the re-signing of forward Henrik Zetterberg to an expensive multi-year contract extension.

Zetterberg, 27, is in the final year of his current contract paying him $2.9 million for this season (counting as $2.65 million against the Red Wings cap).

Reports indicate his new contract, effective on July 1, will be a whopping 12 year, $72 million deal. No word yet if it'll be front-loaded but it's expected to break down as $6 million against the Wings cap over the term of the contract.

I hope to write more about the length of Zetterberg's new contract in an upcoming Foxsports.com column, but for now my focus is on how it'll impact the Wings payroll for next season and upon their efforts to re-sign other key free agents.

Prior to today's announcement the Wings payroll for next season was estimated at just over $41 million committed to 14 players. Zetterberg's new contract will push that to just over $47 million.

Assuming next season's salary cap remains close to this season's $56.7 million, that would leave Wings management less than $10 million in available cap space.

That won't leave much to re-sign pending unrestricted free agents Marian Hossa, Johan Franzen, Mikael Samuelsson and Ty Conklin or restricted free agent Jiri Hudler.

Hossa this season earned over $7.4 million, Franzen just over $940K, Samuelsson $1.2 million, Conklin $750K and Hudler just over $1 million.

Even if by some miracle they were all willing to accept the same salaries to return next season the Wings wouldn't have enough to re-sign them all.

Hossa will likely seek over $7 million again. Franzen, Hudler and Conklin are all going to seek significant raises based on their respective performances over the past two seasons. Samuelsson will also look for a pay raise.

The bottom line here is the Wings can't afford to keep them all. I'm guessing they'll make token offers to Hossa, Conklin and Samuelsson but will likely lose those three to this summer's free agent market, and I expect management's real focus will be on re-signing Franzen and Hudler.