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Spend time with family? What a jerk!! esteef

No....not that he is not worth the money, but there is no way Holland gives up 4 first round picks for him... Now, if he only signs a 1 year with Nashville and he becomes a UFA next July? Yes...throw the bank at him...especially if we already have Suter!

Zero sense this makes. As for the political dealie/skipping the White House celebration, I think it's a bit of a reach to see how these two specific things are connected. Happened months and months ago so I don't see why it is reason to be brought up when him possibly skipping out has probably little or nothing to do with politics/government. And as for him skipping out, was his choice and his business. Don't really agree with it but I understand and respect his decision. All I'm going to say on that since I pretty much have given up talking politics in depth a long time ago.

No more crystal meth for you.

This is the year Brendan Smith has to show something. Holland needs to structure the budget to either sign Brendan Smith to a big contract in 2013, or have room to sign a big unrestricted defenseman like Weber in 2013. If Brendan doesn't show anything special, I'd sign him to a comparable salary to Johnathan Ericsson. Then I would have several million to go after unrestricted free agent Shea Weber. With this strategy, Quincey, Bertuzzi and Kindl are toast in 2013. This strategy also requires the Redwings to hold off on spending about $6 million until 2013 off season. I really like a restricted free agents T.J. Oshie and Evander Kane because they are very young, tough to play against and have outstanding skills...plus you have room for the best defense in the NHL. Watch their videos below: T.J. Oshie of St. Louis, (26 Years Old) <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="yiv2014005057MsoNoSpacing"> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="yiv2014005057MsoNoSpacing"> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="yiv2014005057MsoNoSpacing"> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="yiv2014005057MsoNoSpacing">Evander Kane of Winnipeg (20 Years Old) Kane is a 30 goal scorer on a poor Winnipeg team. He's restricted, but I think he's worth a very high price. <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="yiv2014005057MsoNoSpacing"> My Custom Lineup FORWARDS Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.955m) Evander Kane ($4.200m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / T.J. Oshie ($4.000m) Justin Abdelkader ($1.200m) / Darren Helm ($1.200m) / Danny Cleary ($2.800m) Drew Miller ($0.838m) / Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) DEFENSEMEN Ryan Suter ($6.000m) / Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) / Brendan Smith ($0.875m) Kyle Quincey ($3.250m) / Ian White ($2.875m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) / GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) Joey MacDonald ($0.550m) ------ (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $70,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $63,892,045; BONUSES: $37,500 CAP SPACE (24-man roster): $6,407,955 Under Salary Cap

Don Cherry said last night that the Devils are playing scared hockey right now. I don't know if they are scared, however, this series reminds me of the Wings-Preds. The Wings would have the puck but it was always on the perimeter of the ice and not really threatening the Preds goal. I see the same thing happening in this series. Long distance bad angle shots have made Quick's life fairly easy out there. The Kings are letting the Devils skate around all they like on the outside and when the puck goes in front of the net or in the corners, LA is laying a beating on the Devs forwards and dmen. I agree with Cherry that if NJ is going to make this series then Kovalchuk and Parise and Zajac have to become more physically involved and not be satisfied to take the easy outside ice. Their speed should draw some penalties if they attack the middle of the ice. LA is winning the physical battle out there. NJ has played alot more games than LA has in these playoffs and you have to think this will be a factor going forward.

IMO NO to Oshie or Kane. Let's go after Parise and Suter and see who we can bring up from GR. Maybe we can even make a couple trades at the Draft and get a couple good picks and maybe a 1st round pick back.

I have to say this is quite a suprise but I do recall hearing rumors about him possibly wanting to be traded out of Boston. I don't know how true it is but I did hear it from a couple different sources, perhaps that has something to do with his decision to take next season off. Whatever the reason I hope all is well with him and he returns to the NHL soon.

Why not just retire indeed? Taking a year off? lol. Give us a break please. I like Tim and my name's Tim, but seriously this is somewhat of a joke. So much for being a "Team" player.

In the Red Wings possession style game a puck moving defenseman is a shut down guy because if we have the puck they can't score. Gardiner actually scored 3 points more than Liles playing ONLY 9 games more than him and getting a lot less PP time but GA and GF/GA wasn't as bad when he was on the ice as was evidence by his -2 (same as Lidstrom last year when he won the Norris)

I agree. I think screwing the Bruins out of $5 million in cap space is unprofessional of him. They should fix that in the new CBA. Why should a player's salary count towards the cap if he decides to take the season off or not honor his contract? If a player is placed on injured reserve or if a player decides to step away the game, then their salary shouldn't count towards the cap.

His Wisconsin teammates McDonagh and Gardiner (Smith was better than both) were both ready to be ready to be top pairing D-men in the NHL. Affording him the opportunity would expediate (that is the correct word and spelling) the maturation process As I said I said I am not advocating Abby get 19 mins a game(which is more than just top 6) but I would rather have him there than Jokinen

First preparing for the future usually implies that you don't have to throw big money at free agents to fill huge holes in the line up to stay competitive. Next you seemed to have implied that its myth or a conspiracy that the Wings may not be as good as we have come to expect of them next season. I sarcastically pointed out all the reasons why not filling the holes in the line up could come back and bite the Wings. Well, I tend to follow the Red Wings prospects pretty closely. So here's a quick rundown: Possible pure Goal scorers (high end projections of 30+ goals): Teemu Pulkkinen Tomas Jurco Marek Tvrdon Possible top D-men: Brendan Smith The rest of Detroit's prospect pool are full of boom or bust pass first forwards and borderline NHL energy guys, and second and third pairing D men. Of their last few first round selections only Smith is going to be a good NHL player, McCollum is trash, Riley Sheahan seems to have peaked as a borderline 3-4 liner. Now lets be really really optimistic and say that players like Jurco, Pulkkinen, Jarnkrok, Sproul, and Marchenko all make it to the NHL. Know when this is likely to happen? More than likely 2015-2016. So between then and now there's not much in Grand Rapids besides players like Nyquist and Tatar and Smith to fill the holes the wings have. Now lets take a look at them: Neither Nyquist nor Tatar are goal scorers, they are puck movers, so they don't fill the needs of the top 6 for a legit goal scorer. Now Brendan Smith: hes a blue chip D prospect, but his biggest hole is he is young and he has the offense first attitude. He has the abilities to become a really good top pairing D-man but he needs time to learn the NHL game and mature abit. So does he fill Lidstroms shoes? or even give Detroit a top 20 D man? The answer is no. So now this leaves one option to fill the glaring holes in the line up: Go outside the organization. There are two routes for this #1 Free agency, and their are 2 players on the market July first that fill the needs of the Wings' line up, Suter and Parise. If Detroit doesn't land these two players they can either pick up filler players like Semin and Wideman who both are not nearly as good as Suter and Parise or they can trade. The biggest problem with trading is other teams will want players back, the first players on the list will be Pulkkinen, Jarnkrok, Smith and Filppula, and on top of that they will probably also want some picks. This is bad for obvious reasons first Detroit's farm system is good but its not deep with blue chip talent, there is a lot of boom or bust guys, so trading the players who are most likely to make it in the NHL hurts the Wings in the future (short sighted). There is nothing in Abdelkader's past that points to him being 1/2 as good a goal scorer as Jokinen was. Remember kiddo that Jokinen has been close to 40 goals 3 different times with the Panthers.

Nothing like a non-subtle product placement in your Facebook page. More spotlight!

Hey, theres that enforcer that everyone is always complaining that we need. BONGO SOLO!!!

It offended me, as well, that Weber and the Pred-no-necks thought attacking Hank in that manner was fine and dandy. However, justice was served and they disappeared off the playoff radar rather ignominiously. Hank and Weber are grown men... well, Hank is, anyway. If they can work it out, then I say go with what makes the team better. If that means Weber, then fine. But don't break the bank on him. While we need D, I am not sure he's Wing material. Convince me.

It's cool brah it's cool. I mean I don't mind Suter and all but I just don't see him fitting on our team. He reminds me of a grade B Rafalski. We shall see. And on regards to Justin Schultz I like the idea if we got him of pairing him with Smith. The youth of our organization is getting the call now and I'm looking forward to it.

It's not a coincidence because one caused the other but it also has nothing to do with his political affiliation. Taking out the politics this is what he did: Made a controversial decision becoming a distraction for his team and justified his decision with public statements. He later refused to comment on these public statements, not helping the media distraction factor. Now he wants to sit out a season and it will cost the Bruins $5 million on the cap even if they suspend him (source) or send him to the AHL because of his contract. So again, people aren't hating on him because of his politics, they are because he's a dick. EDIT: as the original source says they Bruins will have the choice of "tolling" his contract making them owe them one more year if he does return, but in that case his $5 million will count against the cap in both seasons [source]

I agree with you, that's the risk you run. But it's never really been in Holland's nature to grant spots on the team to guys based on talent alone. I'm not really worried though, with Smith, Dekeyser, and Ouellet developing I think we're in pretty good shape in the "Prospects with Potential" department. Edit: Well I guess I should take a step back. Is the kid so skilled that he's in the Toews, Crosby, Stamkos department? I mean, is it completely obvious to anyone whose ever seen him play that he's going to be elite, and practically is already? If he's that good, then sure. If not, we've got a development program for a reason.

But it's not just his business, he is making a selfish decision that could potentially affect the Bruins financially . Plus he signed a contract, I don't understand why everyone seems to think it's ok to break an agreement. That is a general statement for the mindset that seems to be common now. If you agreed to something hold up your end of it or make sure you make amends for not doing it and you better have a damn good reason too! I say if he wants the year off he should have to pay any penalty that the Bruin's might have to burden. And if he chooses to retire, I saw somewhere that the Bruins would still owe him money...he should have to forfeit it.

Zetterberg will be entering his 10th season in the league and is the second longest serving Red Wing behind only Datsyuk. He posseses many of the qualities that made Yzerman and Lidstrom two of the greatest leaders in NHL history. Through his tremendous work ethic, and elite skill on both offense and defense, Zetterberg has earned the respect of his teammates and opponents. Despite being one of the most talented all-around players in the world, Zetterberg remains a humble and honest hard-worker, who leads by example. He is a quiet leader, soft spoken, but willing to speak up when something needs to be said. He is a good communicator, articulate, reasonable. These are skills he will use when dealing with the media, on-ice officials, teammates, and coaches. Zetterberg’s father is a coach. He is a player that doesn’t need much coaching. He thinks the game. Henrik displays tenacity and devotion to the team. The way he kicks his game into another gear and carries the team on his back is reminiscent of Yzerman. They both refuse to accept defeat. But, even with all of the passion and desire for the game, Zetterberg keeps his emotion under control, calm and cool like his mentor and hero, Nicklas Lidstrom. My full article at: Red Wings Captaincy: Following the Legends

You could always just give the first person to guess the right number the prize. Other than that, I have no idea.

I think it has to do more with how he handled that situation than his actual political affiliation. More than any snub of the presidency or anything, for me it was just a shame how he created this major distraction from what should've been a great day for his teammates. And honestly, let's keep this thread about him taking a year off and away from politics. There's a thread about Thomas skipping the whitehouse in the political forum, so any discussion of that should go there. This forum is one of the few safe havens where I don't have to think about that crap.