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As I recall, when Stu was traded here, the little girl was about 9 or 10. They obviously didn't move at that time since it was near the end of the season and it was a rental. He would be UFA in a few months and there was a new baby on the way. He then got a 4-year contract with a partial NTC. I remember that it was said at that time that he wanted to stay put until his step-daughter reached high school so that she wouldn't have to be uprooted again. It seems that the plan was to bring her here. I knew a lady who was divorced in California, and in her case, in order to move away, she had to send her kids to live with their dad in the summer in order to avoid the every-other-weekend visits, which would not have worked over such a long distance. The only reason she got that was that her ex allowed it. Apparently in Stuie's case, either the dad or the courts didn't allow it, or he and his wife decided not to move the family. I do recall that he declined a better offer from Calgary because he didn't want to send the little girl through customs alone on her visitations. Considering that he's from Alberta, that must have been a sacrifice. Hearing how he has put his wife and her child ahead of his own interests has given me a huge amount of respect for him. I would love for him to stay, but I understand why he wants to be back with his wife and 4-year-old son. It has to have been rough for him to be away from his little boy, yet he has honoured his contract with the Wings, even though things apparently didn't go as planned. I wish him well where ever he goes, even if it's with an icky team like the Ducks.

"Personal reasons" means it's none of our business.

Very good. Holland has made some alrightish moves too. Like building the current team. It's not that Sykora though. There are two Petr Sykoras. This one has played 12 NHL games during his career.

You're putting this in the absolute worst possible light. Let's go down the list. The Petr Sykora whom Holland traded away was not the one of the same name who went on to be a successful scorer, but was rather the Sykora who lasted a very short time in the league. Sharp, Ponikarovsky, Green and Comrie were draft picks. Saying that Holland "gave them up" does not is not accurate, because the Wings never had those players and, indeed, might not have drafted them had the organization retained those draft selections. Rather, Holland traded away the picks that the teams in question later decided to utilize for the drafting of those players. Fleischmann was used to gain Lang, who was #1 in the league in scoring at the time. Knuble was not good with the Wings, and there was no space for him. So that's that.

Why can't Ilitch use his mob connections to bypass all this California law s***?

He has a step daughter and I'm sure that has something to do with it. Could be the courts won't allow her to move, likely because the dad is still there. Plus he's been away from his family for a long time, I could see him wanting to actually be able to be with them more.

Another great performance out of Joey Mac. Wanna give a shout out to my boy "No Panic" Janik, a +2 with 2 blocked shots and no giveaways in 18 minutes of ice time

Boy, are you bitter.

Funny comment I heard from the TradeCenter stream on TSN. First Ganger was in a lot of trade discussion, until he had his 8 point night against Chicago. Then LA was considering trading Brown, until he got his Hat-trick the other night against Chicago. Then last night, when Chicago had a shot at dealing a blow to Anaheim's playoff chances which could have led to some deadline moves, they blew it and Anaheim stuck in the race for the 8th spot. So this lackluster trade deadline is obviously all Chicago's fault

In 475 Red Wings games, Cleary has 109 goals and 135 assists for 244 points. Does he get a free pass too, since his numbers are comparable? I'm sick and tired of Franzen getting a free pass because everyone wrongly assumes his numbers are great. They're good...not great. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Lidstrom all have better numbers than Franzen, both playoff and regular season, and we expect each of them to bring an A game every night. If our stars don't get a pass for producing, neither should anybody else.

piss poor effort. special teams suck. one of the best defenseman of all time out of the lineup. one of the best forwards in the world out of the lineup. Wings are winning 5-2. Somehow I'll manage to suffer through that kind of game.

soooo, i haven't been able to watch the game tonight, but i checked the stats and... for almost 4 1/2 minutes all columbus did was hit us?

I think that trading good prospects for the likes of Gaustad and Pahlsson was not an option. As for Pahlsson, I'm sure the Jackets were far more keen on trading him to an extra-divisional team than to the Wings.

My dad, who only watches the Wings whenever I'm home, sees Babcock smiling and says "Whoa! He smiles! Holy s***!" Hahaha

Exactly. Hindsight is always 20/20 but there is no one here who wouldn't deal a prospect and a 1st for guy who is leading the league in scoring.

Franzen right back to normal, if had been skating hard he'd have had that rebound.

Mule! Bite it haters!

Hudler was an RFA, so Holland spent the majority of the offseason trying to come to a deal with him. Hudler walked, so Detroit had to pick up scraps to fill the cap space. Franzen was not a blunder. The guy has performed very well for us so far pointwise, and is sporting a low 3.9 million dollar cap hit. Hossa is paid more and it was not known if he would be able to pick up his play (3 goals and 15 points in 2010 isn't cutting it) from the 2009 post-season. You can split hairs about how one deal was better than the other, but you have to understand Holland can't think of his roster in such near-sighted terms. Franzen had an affordable deal on the table and came to an agreement. It's all hindsight, and the only thing people have against Franzen to date is his work ethic. The guy is producing at a normal clip and as the cap rises his salary looks cheaper.

Or maybe russell Crowe is coaching them

hudler oh my ******* GOD

I'm liking Mursak's game so far.

I'm glad you missed the entire point of the whole "signing Hossa or Franzen" aspect of my post. The entire point was because of his shoulder injury, he was GUARANTEED to miss half the season due to rehab. Franzen wasn't. Hossa's "other attributes" did not do much to help Detroit in the post season. That is an issue despite the fact he was able to score 40 goals. His best year happened to be alongside arguably the best center today. He hasn't replicated that performance, or even come close since. Also, Franzen signed before the season ended, while Hossa took longer to negotiate a contract. Holland wasn't about to risk losing BOTH Franzen and Hossa by waiting on a deal for him. Finally, the "one year rental" aspect, if you bothered to bring it into context, makes the point of Holland being loyal to players he drafted and included in the system. Hossa came by for one year, and Franzen worked his ass off to make it to the top line. Did anyone expect him to start floating? Absolutely not. Point being, the entire point was that Hossa was not an easy choice, and if not for the Hudler debacle, Hossa AND Franzen could have been signed. Funny how people forget that.

same here haha, I still blame Chicago for communism and Twilight