In the spirit of one of the biggest "Let’s Play GM for the Day" days of the year, let’s celebrate July 1 by playing poor man’s GM and see if we should sign Chris Chelios.

The ageless wonder Chris Chelios is leaving Detroit due to cap restraints and want to go to the Eastern Conference. And I have just the team in mind.

Sure, the guy is 47, but he’s a tough, rugged stay-at-home defenseman that we need.

More so, he’s the player/coach to replace Sergei Fedorov.

Players, as well as Boudreau, raved over Fedorov’s wisdom and his influence over young players the past season-plus. Surely he had taught something to the young guns about being a good forward, as well as throwing in a lesson about the blueline.

Chelios would be the perfect candidate to do the same for our defenseman providing some institutional knowledge to help round out Green, Shultz and especially Alzner’s game during a full rookie year.

What better person to have on the blueline with Alzner to guide him in a first full season in the NHL? And someone to give Green more defensive guidance to make that Norris trophy a reality.

Remember not too long ago, Cheli was known more for his offense than his chili bar. Then as he came to Detroit and he realized he wasn’t as quick anymore, he transformed his game into a shutdown defenseman.

Perhaps he’ll score more than the 0 points he garnered in an injury-shorten season last year by playing with a young, fast team that will give him a defensive workout.

We’re full at D right now, but I’d be willing to let Shaone Morrisonn go to another team as an RFA or at least trade him.

How would this make sense financially and contractually? Considering his age, despite his fitness, he won’t be given a long-term deal. His 2008 cap hit was $750,000.

With Fedorov, Kozlov and presumably Brashear gone, that’s $7.75 million in cap hit ($7.7 million in salary) off the books. Still, you need to essentially replace a line.

In addition to RFA raises, still up in the air is Brent Johnson’s $812,500 cap hit and whether that comes back and higher or lower, conversely, does Simeon Varlamov come on board with his $821,667 cap hit and does Alzner get a full season promotion with his $875,000 contract plus bonuses?

Let’s say Alzer comes and so does Varlamov – that’s about $1.7 million combined cap hit.

All of a sudden that miniscule $100,000 cap increase to $56.8 million becomes a spit of rain.

(As an aside, the cap makes fantasy deals less fun having cap hits, salaries and other factors to play with. Now it's like being a kid asking your parent's how much money are you allowed to spend on toys and figuring out what you can get for $20.)

Do you go after Chelios and flip a trade taking one of our defenseman for a forward?  Let Morrisonn or Jurcina walk in RFA and get a compensatory pick? Skip the gamble and focus strictly on the forward vacancies instead?

It’s your turn to play.