maximum rule that caps the number of vets (goalies are exempt) teams can dress. Teams must dress 12 skaters with no more than 260 professional regular season games played and a 13th with no more than 320. We do know NHLers would be free to seek temporary employment in Europe as they did in droves during the 2004-05 lockout. But let's just hope we don't learn the hard answer to your question come Sept. 15 when the current collective bargaining agreement expires. The league has too much riding on this coming season, including a mammoth Winter Classic and its concomitant HBO 24/7 series. -- RS (Whoever "RS" is [couldn't figure it out myself], the Hockey News has columnists and staff writers filling in for Proteau this week, and RS makes a good point about the Winter Classic, too) Also of Red Wings-related note :  I'm not one for dishing the kinds of trade talk Paul delved into here on Friday afternoon, so all I can say to MLive's Brendan Savage's stating that Wings fans hope that the team can trade for an offensive defenseman like Zach Bogosian, Keith Yandle or Jay Bouwmeester is what is probably a party line by now: "That's swell and all, but the Wings have no leverage in trade discussions right now, and the team can't afford to dig a new hole in its roster to fill another." I'd love to see the Wings do more than add a free agent band-aid sometime this month