Insider hints at Datsyuk's future in Detroit.

Despite the fact that the Red Wings are focused on a hugely important battle against the Boston Bruins this evening, a lot of fans and pundits are wondering out loud about the future of long time forward Pavel Datsyuk.

For those who don't know, there have been very loud and very real rumors suggesting that this will be Datsyuk's final season as a member of the Red Wings, the team he has spent his entire National Hockey League career playing for. There have been rumors for years suggesting he wants to play out his final years closer to home in the KHL, but they have never been quite this intense before.

On Thursday morning one of hockey's top insiders, TSN's Darren Dreger, shared his insight on the situation, and fans of Detroit will be happy to hear Dreger believes Datsyuk will play out his final year next season.

“Well, it’s certainly up in the air,” said Dreger as per Nichols on Hockey. “I feel like he will, and that’s just based on some of the intel that I’m getting from the Detroit Red Wings. I know that they’re not grilling Pavel Datsyuk game in and game out, week in and week out, to see whether or not he’s going to honor the final week of his contract. They hope and believe that he will, and they have no reason to think that he’s not going to do that.”

Dreger did however acknowledge that the rumors have been around for a long time, and would not rule out the possibility that Datsyuk could eventually decide to go player closer to home.

“But what has been reported has been rumored for quite some time. Not just this season, but the past couple of seasons. ‘Is this the year that Pavel Datsyuk maybe doesn’t come back for family reasons and other reasons.”

[pub]