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Per Ansar KHAAAAAAN!!! And Helene St. JAAAAAAMES!!! (Hmmm... lacks the same effect as KHAAAAAN) Nice to see the speculation come to an end. That's an unnecessary distraction.

Goose doesn't want him back (via Brunner's twitter lol)

THANK GOD! I saw the article and bolted over here to rejoice with my brethren!

Great job as always, Matt. Not gonna lie though, when I saw this I got the overwhelming urge to throw my phone across the room, flip my desk, and curl up in a ball and cry...

They need to bring him back solely based on his personality & work ethic alone. He improved a ton in half a year.

"several more years"...aaach

Are Griffins games still not being show on redwingslive? Drum needs to hit me up. We can't have that.

How about signing Clarkson and Stahlberg or Bickell and Stahlberg if Clarkson commands too much? Brunner (adds more muscle in offseason), Z, Clarkson Franzen, Dats, Stahlberg abs, Helm, Nyquist Tatar, Anderson, Eaves Bert/Too too as extras. Let cleary, miller and flip walk. Buyout sammy

Yes...yes I would. The lack of consistency needs to be address in the top 6. Z and D are not gonna be moved... so might as well supply them with wingers that can play with some effort and consistency. Be it the replacements are our own young players or they came via a trade. Flip, Mule, Bert, and Sammy (even though he didn't play much this season) are all expendable.

Why am I hearing that we need to buy out Cola? What has he done to deserve such hate? He would be an outstanding 5-6 defenseman next year.

Yeah. And by "cheating" I meant more like being a bit unfair for the opponent of the team in the AHL playoffs. But, I am only commenting, like I said, if the rules allow then do it because its all about these guys progression and experience for the mother team.

"Hope to have a healthy Mikael Samuelsson"...I hope so too, so you can buy his ass OUT!

he seemed like he was having more fun than any wing this year. he will be back.

Nyquist the Ginger Ninja has arrived! I'm gonna have to watch this.

Brunner seems like a great teammate, too. He's got a great attitude. If you have a fairly young guy with a lot of potential talent, a good work ethic and a good attitude, you keep him.

Franzens last couple seasons were summed up perfectly in one shift last night. It was in the 3rd when the Wings were pressing. Hank was in the corner working hard trying to shake a defender for a good 10-15 seconds. Franzen parks his ass at the faceoff circle and just stares at Hank. Doesnt try to improve his shooting angle, get open, or support Hank in any way. Just stares at him while Hank is working away the whole time. When Hank finally shakes the guy and is able to get the puck to Franzen shoots a weak shot into Crawford chest. I dont care how "managable" the guys cap number is. A manageable cap number means nothing when you don't produce when it matters. Franzen has been a no show in the playoffs for three straights years now. You cant claim he "turns it on in the playoffs" anymore because he just doesnt. Thats not even mentioning the multiple times Franzen has gone 15 to 20 games without a goal. Thats fine if your in the bottom 6. Not if your getting top 6 and PP time. Add in that he brings absolutely nothing to the team when hes not scoring and that manageable cap number looks worse every day.

Franzen is going down hill and is useless the majority of the time. He skates lazily, makes mistakes, doesn't put much effort in, etc. I don't think someone who has proven to be largely ineffective and unmotivated worth any cap hit. What is worse is he doesn't seem to care and is way to comfortable making a fair chunk of change while playing like crap and being outpeformed by Cleary in the CHI series. This guy is a nonfactor for us. If we aren't prepared to motivate him by benching him or scratching him, I say we look to unload him in the near future via trade and get some value out of him before it is too late.

Some guys lack the hunger and drive after they've already won the championship and got the long term contract. I think he fits this description. I loved 08 Franzen and we wouldn't have won it without him but he seems disinterested and disappears quite often now. He has his moments but a hustling, grinding 25 goal scorer would suffice.

Agreed. 4 goals 2 assists and a -7 in 14 games. This was the season the Wings needed to lean on their star players more than ever and he delivered another mediocre playoff performance. The reality is Franzen competes hard when he feels like it. But the Wings are already short on snipers. If they could package Franzen to bring back a big name, great. Otherwise the Wings just aren't deep enough to lose more offense.

Franzen was pretty invisible this series... I kind of forgot about him.

Can't buy him out. Why reward his terrible effort, inconsistency scoring, and general disinterest with a $22.5M pay check and the opportunity to get paid more elsewhere? I hate watching this bum, but its never going to happen. I've said it for 3 years now: dock his ice-time, scratch him from time to time, do something, ANYTHING to get the guy playing like he should. He has had a free ride and he is way too comfortable. Through 14 playoff games, Franzen ended up with 6 measly points and a team-worst -7 (tied for 3rd worst in the league). Worse than that, he played soft. Terrible effort, perimeter play, few quality chances despite the work of his linemates. Until a 3rd period flurry last night, he showed nothing. The guy has arguably the Top 3 skillset/talent on the team, but by far the worst effort. That is shameful. Imagine a guy with Zetterberg's drive given Franzen's tools (size/shot). We can't buy him out, but next year when he is floating most of the season, can we stop pretending his point production off his linemates' work justifies his $4M cap-hit while he continues to cash $5M+ paychecks? And can we put to bed his clutch playoff status, circa 2008-2010? 2008: 16GP 13G 18PTS +13 ($900K) 2009: 23GP 12G 23PTS +8 ($1.15M) 2010: 12GP 6G 18PTS +8 ($5.5M) (AVERAGE: 1.157 PPG) 2011: 8GP 2G 3PTS -1 ($5M) 2012: 5GP 1G 1PT -1 ($5.25M) 2013: 14GP 4G 6PTS -7 ($5.25M) (AVERAGE: 0.37 PPG)

Why buy him out, trade him for anything in return. At least will get sometihing in return & no buy out fee to pay. I'd trade him this year I'd say before his value falls more.

I don't see why Tootoo should be bought out. He did exactly what was expected of him-play physical, drop the gloves when needed, and put up a few points.

Ya I wanna see a griffins title win!

Howard strings together 2-3 good seasons and lots of people say he hasn't proven himself enough, but one good season from Crawford and suddenly he's the guy who proved everyone wrong and is going to carry his team to the cup. I don't get it