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It would be hilarious to just leave an octopus on it with a note saying "only if you buy me dinner first..."

Disagree with the "Sad" part, but that's not why I'm posting. I keep hearing this "we're going to the Eastern Conference and need to get more physical talk" and I don't get it. Most of the time people cite that argument, they're talking about adding a fourth line banger, a heavyweight goon, or (in the case of Tootoo) retaining a 13th forward. I don't get the Eastern Conference thing at all. There is ONE team in the East (Boston) that is head and shoulders more physically imposing than the rest, and that is Boston. Really, when you say Boston, you mean Chara and Lucic. The skill guys on that team are mostly regular-sized dudes. And Chicago just beat them in 6, and we damn near beat Chicago. You could look teams like LA and find as many (or more) skilled large body forwards, and they're a Western team. But even if it is true that the East is this totally different style of hockey and we're likely to get bounced all over the rink, you aren't going to change that fact about the Red Wings by adding and subtracting a few role players in free agency. You'd literally have to re-make the entire core of the team, plus throw out all of the elements of Detroit's discipline and emphasis on skill and puck possession that frustrate other physical teams into dumb penalties. I'm a fan of physical players with skill. For example, if you added David Clarkson (or maybe even Bryan Bickell) to a forward corps that also has Franzen and Abdelkader, that's actually a decent number of skilled big bodies. But this Red Wings team is pretty darn good the way it is, and you can't just reinvent it into something else overnight. Nor would I want to.

I knew Tootoo was gone. I've had that feeling for weeks and it's sad to see, but I can't help feeling after all Holland and Babs said about the importance of the role Tootoo plays we won't join the Eastern Conference without finding a suitable replacement. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with Tootoo. He takes less bad penalties than most players on our team and has reasonable production. There's still hope though, but not much. Sad.

Am I the only one who absolutely does NOT want to trade Tatar? As in under no circumstances should Tatar be traded because he hasn't even had one full year in the NHL to show all that he's got? I don't understand why anyone would want to trade away so much homegrown potential. Trade/buy out the "fat", pick up an FA or two who can play a nice supporting role on this team to Hank and Pav and keep our youth and let that benefit us in the future (a la Hank, Pav, etc). If anything, Kenny can use some of his plethora of defensive prospects as trade bait.

And Toronto recognized it....this is today's Toronto Sun newspaper front cover...what a bunch of idiots.

I'm not a big fan of bringing Cleary back either and I actually like Tootoo, but if we're comparing the 2 players Cleary is a far bigger asset to the team than Jordin. As bad as Cleary was in the regular season he was one of our best players in the playoffs. I don't want him back if its at the expense of someone like Tatar, Nyquist or Brunner but if its only on a 1 year deal and as a bottom 6 forward I can live with Cleary coming back.

I'm just a plain hockey guy, thanks. Nothing old-school about liking hockey fights and enforcers in general.

How the hell is Kane the MVP? Crawford or Bickell should've gotten it. esteef

> who do you give up? my dinner. i will vomit it at once.

None of the above

I wonder if this is just God's way of saying that there's too much diving in the NHL nowadays. The way teams like Sharks and Canucks play you'd think their arenas were flooded too.

The toughness in the East is completely overrated. People act like the east is full of goons that will crush us. There is little to no difference.

I agree; I DO NOT want to trade away Mr. Butterfield. That boy's got jump, and I luved the playoff Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Tatar brings it.

So Boston pulled a Toronto to lose the cup on home ice. *choke* God I hate Chicago.

I'm worried that Holland would trade away valuable, ripe young talent as a result of being "too good" or "loyal" to use buyouts on used up players like Sameulsson and Bertuzzi.

To each his own. The Wings were not expected to do anything this year and I felt the most important part of this year was the development of our young guys. I mean, if our top prospects don't perform well, we're looking at some lean years, lottery draft picking years. Seeing them take it to Chicago, a team that eventually won the Stanley Cup, is very promising. Seeing them win the Calder Cup down in the AHL is even more promising. Losing never feels good, especially to Chicago, but there's a big shiny silver lining to this past season and maybe that makes me a glass half full kind of guy, but the promise these young guys showed this spring outshine the loss. Again though, that's just me.

Okay, my turn, I guess. After reading that article by KHAAAAAAAN, discussing the Wings' options at the draft and the possibility of moving Colaiacovo, Emmerton, or Tootoo and perhaps buying out Bertuzzi or Samuelsson I started to get curious as to what exactly that could look like. As far as I'm concerned, those are the extra pieces that - with the exception of Tootoo - need trimming, so it was certainly an encouraging article - even if it is all conjecture at this point. FORWARDS Michael Ryder ($3.500m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) Damien Brunner ($1.350m) / Stephen Weiss ($3.100m) / Johan Franzen ($3.955m) Tomas Tatar ($0.840m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Gustav Nyquist ($0.788m) Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) / Joakim Andersson ($0.605m) / Drew Miller ($1.350m) Jordin Tootoo ($1.900m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) Kyle Quincey ($3.775m) / Brendan Smith ($0.827m) Danny DeKeyser ($1.350m) / Jakub Kindl ($1.050m) Brian Lashoff ($0.725m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($5.292m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) - Buyout: Todd Bertuzzi ($0.000m) Buyout: Mikael Samuelsson ($0.000m) -------- SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $57,813,920; BONUSES: $1,010,000 CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $7,496,080 I know, it looks just like everyone else's. Ignore the $7mil+ cap cushion, because I made no attempt to calculate the salaries of the UFA/RFA signings. I'm terrible at that, so there's no point. Feel free to substitute Ryder with any of the power forwards that have been mentioned here throughout the off-season, if you'd like. In my perfect scenario, Colaiacovo is somehow moveable - perhaps packaged with Filppula's rights - and Sameulsson and Bertuzzi can be bought out. While, I like what Bertuzzi can bring to the line-up; he and Samuelsson are the most obvious buyout candidates and I don't see that changing at any point over the course of the next year. I've accepted that the fact that this team will likely be unable to acquire a worthwhile defenseman and that they will move forward with the core that we saw in place at the end of last season.

Both

Jesus Christ learn to read. Some people these days....

So the new model franchise is to: Have a moderately successful team with 1 cup appearance Go into FULL SUCK mode for 15 years while the owner and his crony GMs make bonehead trade after bonehead trade to cut down payroll, thus resulting in a half-empty barn and a bunch of high round flops Wait for the owner to DIE Owner's son inherits and invests in team, that has some high draft picks on board and ready to go Win 2 cups with a coach that is floating by on the team's talent as opposed to actual coaching.

Lidstrom, bar none. Orr didn't play defense. He had a good plus/minus because he put up a zillion points. Tighter defense and better goaltending would expose his "offensive prowess" and his defensive numbers would likewise suffer. Orr's over rated, Lids played in a time when scoring was harder, defensive assignments were tougher, and going "coast to coast" was almost unheard of. Even then he managed to win 7 Norris Trophies and and twice as many Stanley Cups and he was a factor in every one of them. Bobby was good, but score 150 going end to end against Weber, Suter, and Rinne. Not happening buddy.

It's the same reason Royce Gracie dominated in the early years of UFC, then proceeded to get dominated by the later generations of fighters. Was Orr better than his competition of the time? Absolutely, no question. However, his competition is so far below today's NHL that his gaudy numbers would never happen in today's game. Another good comparison would be Maltby dominating in juniors. He was way better than his competition, but he couldn't dominate like that against higher skilled players.

Why oh why is this a topic. I would never want to see Crosby in a Wings Uniform.

Yep. Holland likely s*** the bed. Flip was having a poor regular season, and from what I remember, there were indications he'd be asking for a bigger contract. Teams were overpaying at the deadline, and we should have been all over that. I know the Wings were trying to make the playoffs themselves, but in the long term, Filppula should have been shipped.

Guys I think The Axe is actually Emmerton... We should be nice.