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THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING!!! False alarm: just LGW at FA day, the trade deadline, draft, or after any 2+ game losing streak...

Anyone think there might be a reason why none of the legit contenders were willing to sign Ehrhoff, Wiz or Kaberle to big contracts?\ Wiz doesn't have the body of work to justify a 6 year 5.5 million dollar cap hit on a real team. I wanted the Wings to sign him but not for a deal like that. I'm glad Holland isn't the kind of dumbass GM who makes a signing in the summer just so he can have a big, exciting press conference to make all the fans happy. If there isn't a piece that fits the Wings in terms of the team AND the salary structure the smart move is to look for other options. I just checked the calendar and it's not October. I also checked NHL.com to see where the Wings were in the 2011-2012 standings... looks like we're fine there as well. Let's not flip out just yet.

Look at what everyone got this week. Ehrhoff, the playoff's worst +/- (-13), is going to make more money next season than Crosby. Leino, Laich and Fleischmann are signed to a cap hit of 4.5 million over the next 4-6 years. Jovocop had 14pts in 50 games last season... He's 35 years old and the Panthers signed him to a 4 year contract with a 4.125 million cap hit. Brewer was very solid for the Lightning in the playoffs he actually had a significant drop in offensive production after they got him from St. Louis (2pts in his 22 games with TB compared to 14 in 54 games in St. Louis). But did he deserve 3.85 million a season for 4 years? While I'd rather have Brewer on the Wings for that price, Ericsson's numbers are virtually identical to Brewer's but E's 5 years younger and trending upwards. Brewer's numbers have declined since his peak season in 06-07. Like I said-- if we're talking about next season in isolation I'd take Brewer over Ericsson. But Brewer will be 36 when his deal ends and Ericsson will be 30. I doubt at that point E will be the worse choice. Ericsson will have to get better to justify his contract by growing as a player. However, we can safely assume he's got a better shot to grow at this point than Brewer does (who's 32, declining and has 12 NHL seasons under his belt). When word filtered out that E's contract was worth 3.25 million it felt like a punch in the gut. Now that I've looked at the signings that went down so far I don't feel quite as bad. Frigging Barker was waived by Minny and bought out after posting 5pts and a -10 in 52 games last year but he got 2.25 million from Edmonton (yeah I know he scored 40pts once in Chicago but he's obviously not that player anymore... at least he wasn't that player in Minny!). I mean s***... a 37 year old Hamrlik got 3.5 mil a year for 2 years with Washington. How much tread could he possibly have left on his tires?!? Is Hamrlik going to get 2:33 mins of pp time per game in Washington? He got 15 of his 34 points on Montreal's PP. He'll have to get comparable time on Washington's pp to replicate those numbers. This year's cap increase really messed the market up (in my opinion).

They need Hudler, and we have just the Hudler they're looking for.

1). Columbus was a mess, and his salary was higher than his ability and he struggled with that. He was a scape-goat for a horrible defense and was frusterated. He'll be much better in a 5/6/7th role. 2). He was the #3 d-man during Carolina's cup run, including >3min/game shorthanded toi 3). He's big. 4). We've been very successful on reclamation projects in the past, Commodore's potential is high he just needs the tools to get there again. I don't see any negatives with this move.

“I want to be with the Red Wings really bad, and everything worked out great between Kenny (Holland) and my agent, and for me, so I’ve very excited to be back,” said Eaves, who signed a three-year contract worth $3.6 million. “It’s just the people, the people in the organization that I’m with every day,” said Eaves, in an exclusive interview with DetroitRedWings.com. “Everyone is awesome, and I really enjoy all of the friendships that I have there. It was the people that really made me want to come back to Detroit.”

There has been a pattern of your peers with the same viewpoint to put down those who accept what is at hand and not provide any suggestions for how you would do things better, other than "let him walk." I was pissed about the signing at first, but you know what, I got over it. I realized that he would command that money on the open market, and frankly, his potential matches that of Babchuk or White. We weren't going to get any big names that were young. And our trade pieces aren't that enticing at this point in time.

That's just UFA speak for "I couldn't take Kenny for a ride". Jagr learned that earlier in the day. esteef

Please point him out.

Wiz said he wouldn't sign in Detroit because they won't pay their players fair market value... Public enemy #1 in my book, can't wait to boo his punk ass. We can also be sure that he wasn't going to come here even if we traded for him. Fair statement or total ******/traitor? Edit:spelling. Thanks for the proof reading

We had way too many floaters last year at forward to bring them all back next season. Some new blood is needed in the lineup.

Another 2nd round playoff loss to the Sharks with that lineup. I guess Holland's job is to do nothing at all. That's unacceptable considering how we haven't done anything in the playoffs the last two seasons, other than beat up on Phoenix.

FAIL

If you read what Holland has said and what I said, you'd understand that no one is stating Ericsson is replacing Rafalski. Where do you get this s***? Read! Holland is doing what he can to get a top 4 defender, but pickings are slim. If we can't, he'll expect the ENTIRE defensive unit to pick up their games to offset the loss. It is, after all, a team sport. I'm making the best of the situation instead of bitching about it. It's called being positive and trying to see the bright side. Give it a try. Oh, and who do you suggest we replace him with? White? Babchuk? Wizniewski was never coming here, Ehrhoff was already locked down in Buffalo. Enlighten me. The fact of the matter is that no matter what Ericsson has done to this point, he has potential. The entire management wouldn't have approved of this, otherwise. I don't agree with the way we paid him, I'd rather he prove it beforehand, but it was a risk that Holland felt we needed to take. He has faith in the guy, and I'm sure there was conversation of expectations. His contract is not too big to trade, in this market.

I guarantee you Holland doesn't leave 10m in cap space left unspent. Calm down. It's been one day. Do you really think Holland is going to openly say who he's going after? You don't announce these sort of things to the press.

July 2nd.

If only we had cap space.

lol. if he's planning on previous successes to get him through this, he's not getting my approval. its not like the leafs are cool with not winning the cup anymore just because they won it a lot of times in the past. you have to constantly strive to improve. i want my gm to be greedy and try to hoard as much talent as he can, not "see" whats around the corner...

Rafalski was the second d-choice on the PP and we'll certainly see Kronwall moved into that role. Rafi didn't play a second on the PK while Ericsson certainly will. I don't think it's fair to say E is Rafi's replacement in any sense of the word. Ericsson's going to be the 4th d-man on the Wings where-as Rafi was the 2nd best offensive defenseman. The Wings will expect growth from Kronwall (a fair bet) as he shows whether he can be the legit #1 option on the PP and PK. There really wasn't a player of Rafi's offensive calibre on the UFA market his year. Rafi is certainly one of the best offensive defensemen to come out of the US.

Lol. That's underpayment. No way would they take our trash for Keith ******* Yandle. Emmerton won't ever play for time on the Wings, Hudler is... well Hudler, Kindl got beat out by Salei last year. Sheahan has been uninspiring, Larsson is in some other country throwing hissy fits because he can't crack the DRWs lineup.. but the two firsts will be more like 2nds.

Just curious, and I'm not saying I want Gagne, but who DO you want the Red Wings to sign? I've been lurking here awhile now and I've seen you shoot down literally every player mentioned as a possible acquisition. Who would you like?

I really hope we do go with Ozzy. I mean, we aren't being serious about making the team better, so at least we can take care of our own.

Just let people express their raw fan emotion. That's what an internet message board is for, really. For better or worse, they provide the ultimate freedom to express however the hell you want with little to no consequences. With an emotional climate like the one in this thread, it's a waste of time to try to argue and change each other's point of view's so why not just let people dump all their s*** and be done with it? Besides, no matter how much we ***** and complain today and for the rest of summer, we're still going to watch every game and then complain/celebrate on here again and again and again. We're all still fans of the Red Wings and none of us are going away anywhere.

Over a guy who couldnt crack the NHL with Edmonton. Everyone forgets how good Commy was with Carolina in the playoffs, he got a big pay day from Columbus for that reason. He is big, plays physical, will fight and clear the crease. He is a great signing as a guy to rotate in and out with Smith and Kindl. He was bad with Columbus but so is pretty much anyone not named Rick Nash, give the guy a chance before deciding its horrible because he went into the wings bench once. People will forget all about it when hes out there and noone is digging at Howard without getting put on their ass

My favorite part of free agency is when fans assume every available player wants to sign with them and when they don't it's obviously the GMs fault.