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I dont get all the Bert hate. The guy pretty much ran the team when EVERYONE was injured. He plays decent defense, impossible to know off the puck, and likes to bang bodies every now and again. I love the guy and hope to god he stays, and id be happy if it were for another 2 years. I dont think another "cleary type player" will do much. Cleary was pretty invisible all year last year. I like him, but he didnt play like we are used to seeing him play. the only thing that cleary does better than bert is speed in my opinion. I say keep Bert and try and get the best bang for whatever buck we have left. I'd love to see afinogenov here, but i dont think we wil have enough to get him, so try and fill the third or fourth line with a cheap free agent somewhere. Keep miller and eaves too in my opinion.

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I don't get it either. Everyone is basically giving him the finger for running the team when no one else could due to injuries. I want Bert back and still have not heard a good enough argument to release him.

Brodeur at this stage of his career would fit with Washington. Chokes in the playoffs, match made in heaven.

We lost because of an absurd rash of injuries.

I seem to recall Hudler playing on the third line in 2008, he doesn't exactly fit the bill of tough. I think Bertuzzi is the best player we have a realistic chance of getting in the 1.5 million range so I hope we get him.

Eklund had a mind?

The logjam on center will mean that one of them will be bumped down to the third. Given that Filppula is the better two-way player it might be him but like I wrote earlier there will be a fair amount of switching around as the season goes. I guess we agree in principle though.

Good he knows his role then. Throw the other teams stars off their game, maybe get them t take a roughing penalty. Boll isn't like May or Downey. He's actually a solid player, can, skate and hit. Downey and May were pretty one dimensional. Boll is like a big agitator mixed with a light heavyweight weight fighter that will take on anyone. Boll Abby Eaves would be a sick 4th line. They would probably get in like 25 fights by themselves, maybe more depending on Eaves.

Bowlin Ball-Apple Fritter-Patty Sunshine Thats a 4 we can all look forward to being wrecking balls. It really really sounds like if we don't get Boll that we will get somebody like that though. Your handle may come true sir.

My thanks to Mrs. Martin, then.

Not sure if this is posted elsewhere, but Martin has turned down Yzerman and Tampa Bay and is staying in Detroit as 'capologist'. Good news. http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2010/06/red_wings_capologist_ryan_mart.html Awesome news from the Free Press' Helene St. James: the Red Wings' quiet man in the front office, capologist and fantastic hockey executive Ryan Martin, has declined Steve Yzerman's offer to join the Tampa Bay Lightning: June 15, Detroit Free Press: “I decided last night, and I talked to Steve last night and told him I decided to stay,” Martin said today. “It was a difficult decision but also a good decision.” Martin, 40, has been with the Wings since 2005, when he was hired as their director of hockey operations, a title that encompasses making sure the Wings are salary-cap compliant. He is part of the team’s front-office brain trust, along with general manager Ken Holland and assistant general manager Jim Nill -- a group that, until last month, included Yzerman, who segued from retirement as a player into team vice presidency in 2006. Having spent four years side-by-side with Yzerman, Martin was Yzerman’s first choice to join him in Tampa Bay. Martin spent several weeks mulling his decision. “It was an outstanding professional opportunity for me, but at the end of the day, weighing all the professional and personal aspects and the family situation, we felt Detroit a better situation,” he said. “My wife has a career here that she really enjoys. It was just a little bit better fit here.”

The important point of that poster was at this point in his career. If you've watched the Devils recently in the playoffs, Brodeur has been quite bad.

That's retarded. The Devils are as likely to trade Brodeur as the Wings are to trade Lidstrom.

im just saying he obviously could score goals playing Jr hockey im sure the Wings notice those numbers to when they drafted him

Larry Murphy was a Penguin. Luc Robitaille was a Penguin. Should we hate those guys too?

Afinogenov isn't a 3rd liner also, what slump in atlanta? he didn't miss any games and tripled his point total from the season prior

Ethan Moreau has always been one of my favorite players. If the numbers work he could really help our team in the bottom 6.

What interest/concerns me most is whether Datsyuk and Zetterberg can pass off what they learned from Yzerman, Hull, et al to the next wave. That is what is most important. Sure D and Z had talent before they came here, but so did guys like Patrick Stefan and Alexandre Daigle. Unfortunately for the latter they did not learn the game from Hall of Famers like the late-round also rans we have here in Detroit. Datsyuk can barely speak English, though he's probably better than he lets on, but unless we gets some young Russians he will be limited in his ability to teach the kids. Zetterberg can speak well, and he certainly has the personal dedication to excellence, but I wonder sometimes if he has what it takes to lead like Yzerman and Lidstrom. Perhaps I'm holding him to too high a standard at this point, but sometimes he seems bored with life, especially during interviews, and I wonder how he is in the locker room. We all know how Hull really took Datsyuk under his wing, and there was a real nurturing of the younger by the older. Watching them on the bench I really got the impression that Hull cared about Pavel's development, and that Pavel really looked up to and respected Brett. That's the kind of leadership we'll need here to keep this party going.

That's funny... because I've never seen a poster more preoccupied with what other people are posting about. Still trying to determine if this makes you a hypocrite... I'm thinking yes.

I recall a third line of Hudler-Filppula-Samuelsson in the 2008 SCF. Granted, we will never be able to get that kind of depth again but I think the addition of Hudler adds more balance to the Red Wings. The problem in the playoffs was our bottom two lines stunk. Two energy lines doesn't cut it, even when the top six forwards carried the team like they did. We need a third line next season that is an offensive threat. Whether that means going with Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Filppula each centering their own line or Helm developing more of a scoring touch, something has to happen if the Red Wings want to contend for a championship next season. I think Bertuzzi will be back with the Red Wings, but in doing so they almost have to play him with Datsyuk or Zetterberg to make the signing worthwhile. A healthy and productive Cleary will go a long way to bolstering some offense on the third line.

You've yet to give me a reason why any of us are supposed to care what Blackhawks fans were chanting at their parade. I'm being dead serious. Why is there a thread about this, why are people pissed off by it, why should people care. Help me out. I wasn't aware that as a Red Wings fan, I was supposed to give a s*** about what they said.

how would he help exactly?

Patrick O'Sullivan as a project player anyone? He did score 22 goals and he is still young

He's got a funny last name. Just like Volchenkov, Kozlov, Ovechkin. Those guys should all play on the same team since their names have animal connotations in Russian. But apparently some dumb ass here on LGW doesn't get that. I've honestly never heard of him until this thread.