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Our Cup victories often involved "balls to the walls signings". I don't know what you're trying to argue. And you know I'm not a Flyers fan so why waste your time? Holland made huge moves in 2002 and we won the Cup as a result. Now he seems to be falling on his face with the salary cap. Are you arguing that by not doing s***, we're somehow better off or better apt to win the Cup? I doubt it.

Disagree. Chelios was a dirtbag who used to cheap shot Yzerman, and on occasion goad him into fighting. He was traded here and became a fan favorite. Drake was a cheap shotter early in his career, and big time in St Louis, and yet when people talk about the 08 cup they always mention Drake's physical play. Tootoo will be fine, and a good addition to the very, very soft line-up we had last season.

Holland should do what the samurai used to do when they failed at their jobs. Commit seppuku. He tried to make important moves and none of them worked. Unfortunately, his job is making moves to improve the team, not merely "trying" to make moves that help the team. Be a man Holland.

Oh, for sure... he appears to be in pretty good shape. I'd have to imagine he even jogs or runs sometimes too.

That's why people need to take the things NHL executives tell the media with a grain of salt. Great negotiators treat the media as just another negotiation tool at their disposal.

Yup. Every year everyone says "just wait till next off-season, so much deeper!" problem is, it's not. Most will be re-signed throughout the year and next years FA crop will be pretty darn similar to this years

Why would Babcock leave? Holland has given him or attempted to give him every single thing he asked for this offseason. He wanted right handed shots, - he got 3 of them. He wanted depth for the bottom 6 - he has depth in abundance. he wanted to get bigger and faster. He got slightly bigger, but a ton faster The only other thing he said they need was a winger for Pav, and the Wings are still waiting on both Doan and Semin. Holland also attempted trades for Rick Nash (a favorite of Babcock's), and #1 defenceman in Yandle and Weber. Babcock isn't some overreactive fan, he likely recognizes that you can't make everyone come to Detroit, or force teams to trade with you. I bet he's overly pleased with the effort Holland has put in to try and give him what he wants.

In a word: no. Next question, please.

Get this trade done!

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.

We all loved Fedorov even after he signed Carolina's offer sheet. Canucks fans still love Kesler, even though he signed Philadelphia's offer sheet.

Shhhh, you're being realistic. Re: GMR, I'm reminded of that scene in Breaking Bad. "JUST GROW SOME F****** BALLS!!!"

Right, because we're on the verge of winning Cups right now.

Or they'll be offered 13-14 year deals by someone before the new CBA is brought in Now that Weber's fate for the next 14 years will be decided in 7 days or less, the cornerstone of next offseason is gonzo. Still some great names there, but yes, once they start negotiating and signing with their teams, Holland may have to sift through table scraps again. Hopefully there's a couple big names that "want a change of scenery".

This one? Obviously it wasn't like Suter and Parise, but don't you remember all the giddy speculation last year about who would sign him? There were something like 5 Cup contending teams that were in the mix for him. To me, a superstar of Jagr's caliber returning from the KHL is a pretty big free agent splash, even at his age.

Most of those guys will be re-signed this season and when Free Agency rolls around that list will look alarmingly similar to this off-seasons. If you have holes in your roster, fill them now, or during the season because if we've learned anything from this off-season, its that the competition for the few FA's available is fierce and to land one you're going to have to spend a ton of money.

So what if they have two long term contracts? They don't have a #1 or #2 D-man, they have an amazing #3 D-man, 2 guys who are 3-4 D-men, an over paid #5 d-man and 2 kids, one who has been mediocre, the second who has yet to prove anything as a top 4 D-man in the NHL. In the league today you don't get a #1 d-man without giving them a lengthy contract. If they don't gamble on a player that fills a massive hole on the roster, they should fully expect to be the next Calgary Flames.

For a franchise defenseman, one of the top 3 in the entire league, and one just entering his prime I would. We're not talking Christian Erhoff here -- it's Shea Weber. It's ridiculous that Nashville even put itself in a position where he became available to other teams. They burned most of their bridges with him last summer with the arbitration ordeal. How do you fire an owner, exactly? Poile has already had this happen to him once before with Scott Stevens. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

I seem to remember reading that draft picks used for RFA compensation had to be your team's own picks, not picks acquired from other teams in trade, that may be a factor in Holland's thinking, as well as other GM's. I see this as Philly going all in to snag a cup with their current young core before they are open to FA themselves. The current CBA negotiations are also a huge question mark, particularly in light of the first offer from the league and its contract implications moving forward. As others have said, this is likely the last year for the ridiculously long mega deals so Weber went for the greenbacks.

I literally can't wait to see a certain Winger's reaction to this news.

You must be out of loop with Nashville's ownership. What you are saying was true 4 years ago, but that's not true anymore. They would have matched Suter's $93 million contract had they been given the chance. They can certainly match Weber's $100 million offer if they don't opt for the draft picks. If Holland offered sheeted Weber, they would most certainly matched... with a big smile and a pat on Kenny's back thanking him. Your chicken little attitude and impatience is getting obnoxious. I can imagine what you would say if you stubbed your toe... "Damn you Holland!!1". Seriously, it's getting old and your unrealistic expectations are proving ignorance.

Hey at least we got Quincey

Really? That's hard to swallow because Fil is a good centre and we don't have another young centre to replace him right away. If Dats or Z were 3 years younger I could live with it. Don't underestimate how important it is to have good centres.

Not that I think we should sign him, but it's a shame that he's getting so much grief here about his time as a Wing. He never really got a chance to get going so it's hard to say how things might have ended up if not for such a freak incident. It wasn't as if he pulled his groin because he was too old or something; he got sliced open by a skate blade! Who's to say how he might have looked at the end of the season had he been able to get comfortable with his game here? Some say he started slow, and his conditioning wasn't all there, but for an older player, I'm willing to overlook it if he has legs in the playoffs when it counts. I tend to think he would have risen to the occasion if not for the rather major setback. It was a real shame that it had to end that way. I'm not bitter at all; it was just an unfortunate situation that really was out of everyone's control. It could have happened to anyone.

The wings defensive prospect pool is really exciting to me for the first time in a few years. Smith is a stud but the other guys are pretty good as well Jensen comes out of nowhere as a late round pick and is doing very solid in college. Hes big, fast, can hit and is a very offensive type of guy. Hes come a long way for such alate pick Sproul is also big, fast, can hit and is very good offensively. He has sky high potential but is still somewhat raw. If he keeps developing the way he is, he could be a stud on the PP in the future Ouellet is much more polished then Sproul but doesnt have as high of potential I wuoldnt say. Looks like a pretty sure bet to be an NHLer because he does a bit of everything. Plays well defensively, puts up some points, can play very good positionally, occasionally fights and throws a big hit. Hes a swiss army knife type On top of all that, the wings finally have the nastiness on the blue line coming up that theyve lacked a bit. All these top guys have a bit of a mean streak but guys like Nicastro, Nedomlel, and Mckee all bring a legit mean streak to the game. If one or 2 of these guys work out, no one will be coming near Howard in the future