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The organizational depth is such that the Wings can likely afford to actually trade up right now. They could really use a home run scoring forward right now.

Its one thing to start a fight, but quite another to continue to pummel a guy who's clearly injured and struggling, especially over snowing the goalie. That goes against any hockey code or rule that's out there. It's the difference between a tough guy and a DB.

School of thought #1 is utterly idiotic. Committing an unsportsmanlike penalty doesn't warrant what happened to that kid. He also didn't "not defend himself" he was never given any opportunity to. Its not like the guy came up and challenged him to a fight, he threw a crosscheck to the side of the head of a defenceless player, then proceeded to give him a beating while he was already likely concussed. The guy was likely angry that his team was getting smoked and he was looking to exact some revenge from the first player who stepped out of line. I think the charge was absolutely warranted and I don't think the league gave him even close to a sufficient punishment. That the Woodstock player was suspended at all is a joke, but I wouldn't be upset if the Brantford player was given a permanent ban from minor hockey. There is no room in the game for that kind of cowardly garbage.

Here's my shot at it: FORWARDS Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) Tomas Tatar ($0.840m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Nathan Horton ($5.000m) Gustav Nyquist ($1.788m) / Joakim Andersson ($1.605m) / Damien Brunner ($3.050m) Drew Miller ($1.350m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Danny DeKeyser ($1.350m) Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) / Brendan Smith ($1.827m) Jakub Kindl ($2.050m) / Kyle Quincey ($3.775m) Brian Lashoff ($0.725m) / GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($5.292m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) OTHER Buyout: Mikael Samuelsson ($0.000m) Buyout: Todd Bertuzzi ($0.000m) ------ Trade: Carlo Colaiacovo Trade: Jordin Tootoo CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $60,547,254; BONUSES: $1,010,000 CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $4,762,746 Notes: Blue font denotes transactions/re-signings I made, red font denotes UFA signings from outside the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's a nice, young roster (only 4 people that are 30 years of age or older and 4 players aged 29). I assigned large costs to re-signing UFA and RFA players just to be safe. Holland can likely get better numbers than the ones I assigned. Ideally I'd like to ditch Quincey and pick a true top pairing offensive defenseman up somewhere but the pickings are very, very slim. I'd avoid the UFA pool of offensive defensemen all together and look at RFA players. Alex Pietrangelo is an RFA who is sure to be coveted by the entire league. St Louis has 20million in cap space to re-sign their RFA and UFA players. They'll have to get deals done for Chris Stewart, Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo, though, so that money is definitely needed (all three players would command significant salaries). Pietrangelo is easily the best player on that team in my opinion and you can bet it'd be virtually impossible to pry him away from them... but hey it's worth making a note of it. David Rundblad is an RFA in Phoenix who might be of interest. He's big (6'2", 190lbs), young (22yrs) and a right hand shot. Phoenix acquired him from Ottawa in 2011 as part of the Turris trade. Zach Bogosian is an RFA in Winnipeg who is also big (6'3", 215lbs), young (22yrs) and a right handed shooter. Nick Leddy is an RFA in Chicago who isn't exactly big (5'11, 180lbs), but is young (22yrs), although he has a lefty shot. Chicago is going to struggle to sign their RFA/UFA players and may be forced to let some juicey ones go. I doubt they'd let Leddy go but hey, it's possible. With the move to the East it will be easier than ever to make a deal with Chicago. Travis Hamonic is an RFA on the NY Islanders who fits the desirable profile: big (6'2", 206lbs), young (22yrs) and a right hand shot. His offensive numbers are mind-boggling (10g, 60pts in 183 NHL games) but he's a very solid two-way player.

I agree it was completely overboard. Way out of line. There's no condoning how far he took it. However....what exactly did he think was going to happen? The game was already out of hand with previous fights/misconducts and a blowout score. To do what he did to the goalie and not expect some immediate repercussion is pretty naive. All I'm saying is I believe he should take some responsibility for provoking the entire situation in an obviously out-of-hand game. That doesn't mean he deserves what he got or that the other player isn't entirely responsible for his own actions. Just show some acceptance that he knew exactly what he was doing (being classless and baiting the other team) and should have been more than aware that the other team would respond in a violent way. If you're going to be a pest and do stupid things like that be aware of your surrounding and get your damn hands up.

Horton Hears A 'Who do you think will pay you that price'

He crosschecked the kid from behind and then proceeded to pummel a defenseless victim and went way overboard. The guy is a ****** and deserves to be punished.

A few additional points: -The score was already a blowout at 7-2 making the snowing that much more of a rub -The refs obviously did a horrendous job controlling the matter. As shown in the video they literally just stand there and watch until it's almost over. -I'd like to state its much more "cowardly" to snow a goalie in a blowout win than to stick up for your goalie in that matter. Overboard? Hell yes but not cowardly.

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.

Could be a way for us to unload a forward also..our pick + a roster player or two to move up.

Jagr showed his age. He is now completely without the explosiveness he once possessed. Not scoring a single goal in 22 games despite playing on the 2nd line and on the PP for the fourth highest-scoring team in the playoffs really does not reflect well upon him. It matters not at all that he hit numerous posts during the playoffs; shots that posts are rightfully not even counted as shots, as there could be an empty net and they still would not go in. Jagr is past his prime, and he'd serve as nothing here but a one-year plug. Not good.

What strikes me about most of these drafts is the high rate of failure. The NHL draft is really a crapshoot. So many players don't pan out. Others taken quite late (Dats, Z, and Big E) turn out to be NHL regulars or even crazy awesome.

I am starting to be fine with how things went down... even if they went to OT and won (highly unlikely with the Hawks luck this year in late 3rd period/OT situations)...the chance they win in Chicago? Low... This was best we could hope for, Hawks have to win at opponent stadium and we don't have to hear that obnoxious song. Nor hear another disrespectful national anthem (in a finals game 7 too)... I really don't understand how all year Hawks D-men could cheat and pinch forward and their forwards cherry pick so much and teams couldn't take advantage...it just blows my mind that this strategy couldn't be exposed. Maybe Wings were best chance to beat them with skilled passing and discipline (only team to take them to game 7 OT). But Wings really didn't end up with many odd man rushes... or if they did, they had their sticks ripped out of their hands by the trailing D-men and it would go uncalled.

pretty crazy considering his history with injury problems and im pretty sure hes been basically a 45-60 pt career guy .. id stay far away from horton

Not a surprise considering Filppula wants 5+

Well thanks very much for the compliment. I just love my Red Wings and having thoughtful conversations/debates with passionate people such as yourself. And believe me I hope your right as well.

@RedWingsFeed: Red Wings free agent Damien Brunner wants lengthy deal, 'loves Detroit': Brunner... http://t.co/FzUv1p14Cm via @freepwings #NHL #RedWings

Holland said that he was unsure if the Wings would make the playoffs. He did not say that there was a good chance they would not. In the event, they did, and Filppula's contributions, though bare, were important. The mere fact that the Wings made the playoffs and almost made the conference finals pretty much vindicates Holland's choice to hang on to his 2nd-line left wing. On a grammatical note, it's should have. Jagr had 24 points in 36 games when the trade deadline rolled around. He is a big body, a future Hall-of-Famer, and a proven winner. Filppula was in the midst of one of the worst seasons of his career. More, he is none of the above, nor is he a "great" two-way player; he is, rather, merely a fairly good one. In other words, there's no comparison. Jagr came along with production, physical assets, and intangibles, none of which Filppula brought to the table. Filppula may have fetched a 3rd-round draft pick.

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.

*not a significant source of value

I see you're keeping your posts in line with your reputation...

I would hate to be a Flyers fan right now. You trim the contracts of Richards to make room for Bryz and get rid of Bobrovsky who wins the Vezina this year. Only to use a buy-out on him. Yikes!

My choice for MVP is Seabrook. He got Toews back on track....twice, got 2 OT goals, 1 winning a series and the 2nd swinging the momentum back for the Hawks. On top of that, he played really good shutdown hockey and was a big leader for the Hawks. The main problem with all the MVP type trophies and Norris and such, is that EVERY trophy is a point race. They aren't given to the guys that actually fit the description of the trophy.

Am I the only person here who thinks that Orr would not be able to score at all in today's game? Seriously, most of his goals were garbage. He was allowed to just skate around the O zone without anyone laying a body on him. Nobody blocked shots back then like they do today. Finally, goalies have improved a s*** ton since the '70s.

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