Leaderboard

The problem is Holland is getting burned by being too conservative with his moves, and in doing so he's letting the team decline instead of taking a risk and possibly making a wrong move. There's an old saying 'Action is always better than inaction'.

Hey at least we got Quincey

If ends up with the Flyers, you think he'll slam Crosby's head into the boards?

Well this sucks but wow wow wow! Even if I was Kenny I am not sure if I'd do this IMO 14 Years is too long for an athlete in general.

Pronger 2.0 begins.....

If Weber does indeed end up as a Flyer, this means one thing... Lilja becomes expendable & ready for another go-around with the Wings

Most of them when you get a guy like Weber as a RFA most teams would "Go For Broke" to try and get them. I would have like to have seen Kenny send an offer sheet.

Darren Dreger ‏@DarrenDreger I'm trying to go back to bed. More info coming in. Philly, NYR, Detroit and San Jose were big players in Weber trade scenarios. Clearly this offer sheet was a surprise to several teams. And if Holland had a chance at landing Weber by trade, he can hardly be blamed for not risking throwing a big offer sheet at Weber and having Weber possibly be a Predator for life as a result. Philly will not be affected overmuch if Weber ends up a Predator forever, but it's a different story for western conference teams... especially those in the same division as the Predators.

It just did with your post. Stay on topic please.

f*** me. Well, lets hope he goes to Philly and Nashvilles 4 first rounders bust hard. I dont blame Holland for anything up to this point - but man, this crushes the pipedream.

I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime......

I'm with ya there. Not a big fan of offer sheets, but if there was ever a player worth the risk, Weber is certainly it. Especially if the cap hit turns out to be less than Suter's somehow. It genuinely seems like Holland is putting forth a ton of effort into making a huge splash on practically every name available, so I'm not upset there. Just disappointing that the results aren't going in the Red Wings favor at all.

An offer sheet was the only chance we had of getting Weber. I'm sure I don't know a whole lot about how the whole front office thing works but I'd be willing to bet there was no chance in hell that Poile was trading Weber to us. I'm hoping Kenny would be smart enough to realize that as well. I understand he doesn't like the whole idea of signing other team's RFA's but I feel like if there was ever a time to go for broke and do it, this was it.

Lets hope Smith picks up his defensive game.

I think he'll somehow end up in Philly no matter what. Even if Nashville matches I think a trade is in the works. Being a hockey player in Philly is not a bad thing. They have a good young team and its a nice, fun city. As a New Yorker I have a strong dislike for them but being objective its a good situation for him. I think its time to face facts that we are not a team that people will just want to play for "just because". The Wings could stand to be more aggressive in pursuing high end talent. The fact that we'll be paying Quincy close to 4 mil a year and gave up a 1st for him makes me want to vomit.

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Well, let the whining begin.

Holland made offers to the two big free agents and the biggest guy on the trade market, now that he's really up against the wall with no other choices, so he gets a pass? Oh, and he didn't get any deals done, but to me, that's never been the issue. Nash was always a huge longshot and if people really get upset about that, then it's just unfortunate. But again, where was this thinking the last 4 years? You seem to deem it okay that Holland went after Nash as you're using it to defend him. Okay, well, we can only assume that his offer included Franzen and Flip, and we couldn't pass on or trade just one of those guys in 2009 to make keeping Hossa, a better all-around player than Nash, for far less money? I said it then and I'll say it again now: when you have the chance to bring in genuine superstar talent, you do what it takes to make it happen. Holland didn't do that, and now he's left having to beg to give up more to get back less from people who don't even care to listen. And the last 4 years, the same types of stories keep repeating. You would think that losing Rafalski would have lit a fire under him to start looking for a Lidstrom replacement via any means necessary, but again, based on what he's said, not I, he wasn't interested in trading away so and so and such and such to make any sort of big move. But now that we're up against the wall, it's okay? Again, it would've been nice if he had approached these things in a realistic, business-like manner the last 4 years instead of waiting until we were left with a defense that didn't include Lidstrom, Rafalski, and Stuart and an offense that struggles to score goals when it counts. But even when we had the defense, we couldn't get past the 2nd round, and last years 1st round exit was just embarrassing. Some draw we are now… Some call it parity, but I think Holland's struggled to make decisions that could rock the boat when it's been obvious for some time that the boat was going to get rocked no matter what when Lidstrom left. He's consistently settled on trying to keep all the pieces he already has instead of swapping some out to get bigger pieces or pieces that simply better complement some of our current pieces. One of his strengths is in finding low-end or cheap talent that can contribute like Bert, Eaves and Miller, but instead of chasing those guys because he has no cap space after signing game-changers like Hossa, he's forced to chase them when they're the only option left at all and then expect what's likely too much out of them. And again, at this point, all those guys he refused to part with are either gone or currently being shopped around in a futile desperation act. So, I don't know, feel free to love him unconditionally, but despite past successes, I find little reason to defend his handling of this team the last 4 years. I'm not taking anything away from the past success, but this is 4 years in a row now of Holland coming up short in my book. I defended him as long as I could, hoping that perhaps in the last minute he'd pull a rabbit out of his hat and make it all okay like he's done before. That would've minimized my distaste with his management the last 3 years, but at this point, it's clear he never had a solid plan at any point in time to prepare for this off-season. I'm not even mad at him about this off-season. He did what he could in a desperate moment and came up short for logical and easily understandable reasons. But the thing is, successful people tend to find a way to get "desperate" before life forces it on them, leaving them with a lot more control and subsequently far more options and time to consider them. Holland failed to get "desperate" until life forced it on him, and thus had very little control and few options. And any way you shake it, at this point, he's failed to address the biggest hole that's ever been left by a player leaving this team. He hasn't even come close to replacing Stuart (Quincey still has a lot to prove this otherwise) let alone Rafalski. But Lidstrom? To allow it to come to the point where it still hasn't been addressed in any way, shape or form this summer or in the last 3 offseasons is simply unacceptable. Holland didn't get serious about this until he absolutely had to; he procrastinated, and he came up with nothing. And now he has less bargaining power than he ever had as well. He may be one of the best GM's in sports when history is taken into account, but he's now well into year four of a stretch where he has been anything but one of the best GM's. It may not kill his reputation, and it shouldn't, but it doesn't negate the fact that he's failed to address too many issues since our last serious Cup run. Maybe the management version of a Stanley Cup hangover lasts four years and looks like a guy clinging to past success too much instead of evolving. That's the closest I can come to a logical explanation for three seasons and four offseasons of doing next to nothing to tweak a team with balance issues let alone prepare for the post-Lidstrom/Rafalski/Stuart era.

It's funny how everyone on this board whines about getting younger... But when there's an opportunity of inserting Brunner and/or Nyquist into the top-6, everyone screams that Holland's an idiot and should sign Semin and Doan. Doan wants term... four years... He wants this to be his last contract. That means one less spot for the likes of Brunner, Nyquist, Tatar, Pulkkinen, Jarnkrok, Jurco... And a couple more years of whining about how the wings have to get younger. The same goes for Semin... If we sign him and he works out, and the wings sign him long-term next year, that means zero top-6 openings for a number of years... Unless of course you see Datsyuk, Doan and Franzen as the third line in 3 years.

Care to back it up with stats and solid analysis or pointless trolling comments? Since you can't, here we go. Nyquist, Flip, and a first rounder are too good to give up for Nash because of the potential. Flip has a great season. Nyquist is just now coming into his own and he was a leader in scoring in the minors. He will get 2nd line minutes probably this season, if not 3rd. Plus a first rounder in 2013, which has a great draft class coming up. I have to agree, its too steep of a price to pay for a winger.

Bugs me bad when people make lines with players like Doan in the lineup when there's 0 cred there. Why bother making lines until training camp when we have more of a realistic impression on what the lines WILL be not NHL 2013 fantasy draft lines or whatever.

I can bet that Franzen's totals would be not so great if he played for the CBJ. Nash would pot 40-50 goals with Pavel.

Nyquist helm and brunner would be the fastest line ever

Good stuff. Holland re-signs an RFA and people mock it as his 'big splash'. If he let Q go the same people would lament the wasted draft pick we traded for him. Indeed. Holland wants the entire NHL to know loud and clear that he's happy with his defense going into this season and won't overpay for that trade he's been searching for. That being said-- we all know he's kicking the tires on every possible 1st pairing d-man out there. Holland isn't a moron-- I'm sure he's well aware the defense needs a big gun right now and he'll get one if it makes sense for the long-term success of this team. The Wings aren't one above average d-man and forward away from being Cup favourites. If we can't get some improvement from within this team is going to be painfully average. Holland needs to either embrace the suck and get a respectable draft position or make a savvy trade.

Did he look like he was "having fun," by chance?