Leaderboard

We were living this: Thanks, Vladinator! Miss you....

The fact that you're wishing a person an injury serious enough to end a career is pretty classless. Hockey and what he's worth on the ice aside, that's low.

The guy's getting under 4 million per year, and he's in the top 60 forwards in the league for points per game. You can argue that he's not what you, Ken Holland and Mike Babcock wanted him to be. You can argue that Hossa is a better player and they should have kept him. You can argue that he gets lazy and hasn't played to his potential... but what's the point? Seriously. The truth of the matter is that he's worth the money he's being paid, and there's basically no chance the team gets rid of him. The argument is mind boggling to me. He's an exceedingly frustrating player to watch, but he's here to stay. He's a good complimentary player, and he's being paid a fair amount of money for that role.

being a GM is a hard life of decisions. staying competitive is the primary goal. improving each year over the last. the decisions to "go for it" can cause long term consequences that can set a team back for many years if chosen poorly. ask the sharks about signing joe. some would consider him to be the " guy that changes everything" its all about percentages/chemistry/role play. a team of all-stars can win...but can they win it all? larry murphy was considered a wash out in toronto...hated by the fans...fills role in detroit and wins. point is....boyle can be a cog in the machine..."not the one", but a decisive role player. until nyquist/tatar arrived, the redwings have been a team with a few stars...and a pack of mid-level guys. they need to shed a few middling players and upgrade slightly on each position. is almquist/sproul/marchenko/ouellet better than kindl? is boyle/niskanen/markov better than lashoff? once you determine this to be true...you then weigh the variables. cost, trade, chemistry of position in system. would niskanen be a positive ( for the money) in a young team, being the go-to guy to bring outlet passes, run the 2nd powerplay? or would markov suit that position better? of course we can sit back and say yea...niskanen all day....but would that be worth it? younger guys would have to wait, be traded, or leave the wings for euro. i have decided to back away from stressing about moves the GM makes...the GM is doing what he can with what he can. i wanted OEL 5 years ago...i wish eaves wouldnt have been traded....i wanted burmistrov on a wing with pav...i wished we kept brunner.....i think almquist could be a great offensive guy....blah blah blah. it doesnt matter what i do, say, or wish. our gm will do what he thinks can work. we have to trust ken in his decisions just like we trust pavel with the puck. we have a great GM running the wings...he may be controvercial with some decisions ( see: cleary) but we dont know the locker room/office/payroll/personalitys, like he does. all i know is...we have never tanked a season to get the #1 draft pick. there is honor in life and being a wings fan, i hold that one in my pocket. ( im looking at you chicago/pittsburgh) thats my idea of a team buying the cup. (personally i think the first team out of playoffs gets #1 pick.= no more tanked seasons) EVER. finally...my overall opinion is that, dont trade the kids unless its almost a sure thing, boyle might be ok, niskanen might be great, kesler is a cancer, stasny would be epic. monster is good by me, ciao sammy, gonna miss you bert, cleary who?, quincey/kindl...well...you coulda shoulda woulda. and last but not least... prepare for mantha!

People are judging this contract based on the length. He wasn't supposed to play the last 2 or 3 years of it, and under the rules that were in place when it was signed there would have been no cap implications for him retiring. The only thing that makes it a remotely bad contract is the NHL retroactively punishing teams with front loaded contracts. Consistency issues aside, Franzen puts up a good number of points for his cap hit. How many guys who have signed as a UFA are putting up better numbers for the same money or less? Virtually all of them are still on entry level or RFA contracts where they had less leverage and therefore got less, or had done nothing to indicate that they could score 25+ goals before signing their current contract. People are talking about giving Vanek $3 mil more. Over the last 3 full seasons plus the lockout, you get something like 3 more goals and 10 more points from Vanek than you do Franzen, and Vanek is less engaged away from the puck or when he's not scoring. If Vanek is worth $6 or 7 mil, Franzen certainly is worth $4 mil.

Do not know if this goes for everyone, but the reason why Johan leaves such a bad taste in my mouth and frustration is due to his lack of effort at times, and making comments such as "he wants to have fun" versus when he plays with focus and intensity, he is like a man possessed, and can change the entire game. Maybe this is why he is criticized so heavily....

That's not possible. You would still here rumors. I mean, Datsyuk is obviously garbage same with Zetterberg, helm, kronwall Ericsson, and wait I think I get your point

I think 90% of people in this thread are arguing the same points to each other, but are actually in agreement with what Franzen is. Franzen is streaky. Franzen could be much better if he were more consistent. It is annoying for us as fans to watch Franzen not perform at the level we expect him to perform at, especially when the Wings need him to play better. Franzen's contract is long. Despite his shortcomings, he's still a solid point/goal scorer over an 82 game season, given his cap hit. It would be difficult to acquire a player with the same cap hit who could produce at a better level than Franzen over an 82 game season, at least right now. It isn't difficult to find someone more consistent than Franzen for a similar cap hit, although they will likely not put up the point total that Franzen does. It isn't difficult to find someone who gives it his all and tries to be a game-changer moreso than Franzen, with the same cap hit. Again, they might not have the points that Franzen has. Did I miss anything?

The Wings aren't in a position to need a small piece. Adding Boyle and Penner or another lower level free agent forward won't make them that much better. Moulson or Vanek plus a higher level D wound't get them over the hump either. At this point, regardless of where Zetterberg and Datsyuk are in their careers, the only two good options are either using the youth to trade for 2 top flight players, better than the guys in free agency, or letting the young guys develop. That includes Kindl and Lashoff staying, starting the year witha rookie on the 3rd pair, and giving Smith an extended shot at a top 4 role, and using Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan, and Jurco a scoring line players along with Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Weiss, and one other guy to fill out the top 3 lines. Then roll out a checking line of Miller-Helm-Abdelkader, or use Helm or Abdelkader on the 3rd line and plug Glendening or Andersson into the 4th line.

Of course, but that doesn't make him worth buying out. He definitely scores in bunches and we will always have to deal with that

You're right. 41 points in 54 games isn't producing. If $4m players are supposed to produce at a ppg pace I guess you're right.

Good thing Franzen is worth 4 mil

He's never been shopped lol just like 99% of the wings

the whole point of bringing a guy on board like Boyle for 1 to 2 years is precisely to bridge the gap so that when the kids come up on the back end, they're not as overwhelmed and outplayed as they might be if they were brought up now. IMO, I think they should just go with it and bring up XO for next year, but in reality, signing Boyle for say $5m for 1 year isn't going to do any harm.

Relocate the struggling teams and expand into proven markets not exactly rocket science maybe thats why the NHL doesn't see the obvious. I still think every commissioner should be required to at least have some knowledge or atheltic skills in order to represent the sport.

Why are falsely claiming that "I'm playing games" and "shifting my argument?" We just disagree about what his contract says about his expected contribution to the team. Respect my view as I do yours. I'm putting up real numbers as support - I'm not playing with them. For me, the cap hit is all important in the cap world. Yes, he was signed for an 11 year contract - it says he meant to be a part of the team for a long time. We just disagree how large a part. I think, if he was expected to contribute closer to the level of Z and Dats then his cap hit would be closer to theirs. And yet many fans are always angry at him for not being at that level. It's understandable because of his stretches of great play. If he was that player consistently, though, he'd be paid much more. Franzen needs to be better than he was this playoffs, but that can probably be said about every player on the team. Yet Franzen is the lightning rod for hate. Franzen is not one of the drivers of our bus - not paid like that, won't be that guy consistently.

Well I'll say this. It would be a big gamble. I don't think we'd get the Dan Boyle of last year, nevermind the Dan Boyle of old. He put up 36 points last year on a team that's WAY more offensively capable than we are. In my opinion he's declining fast. Don't get it twisted, I'd love to be wrong. But I'm skeptical that adding another old guy on the decline is going to improve us that much. A signing like that is just treading water, and one of these days we're all going to wake up and realize that while we were treading water we wasted the last 6, 7, 8, years of two of the best two-way forwards of their generation. Other than "trying" on Suter and Parise, there hasn't been a meaningful attempt to make this team elite since 2009. That's not ******* acceptable.

Wow Pittsburgh that was incredible classless and also LOL at going from Shero to Rutherford a guy who hasn't done anything for the Hurricanes by not having a bad roster on paper. Also they should have fired Bylsma the day Shero was fired so he would have been able to look at other offeers, what a joke that organization has become *lol*

Pittsburgh treated him like crap. They should have just let him go back when they fired Sherro.

That's exactly my point. Trading for a guy like Yandle makes us significantly better, no matter the price. Signing a guy like Boyle makes us a little better (maybe) but not enough. Given how far we are from being a competitive team, a little better isn't enough. Let the kids get the experience if you're not going to be competitive either way. And IF you want to be competitive, you've got to do something more substantial than Dan Boyle. When you've got an entire core of guys in their prime and playing well, getting a "little better" can be a big help. For example, the additions of Oduya and Handzus for Chicago. We don't have a core it their prime. We've got kids who aren't ready yet, and old guys who can't get it done anymore. We've got two options A) spend the assets it takes to get competitive again, whatever it takes (within reason), or B) wait three more years and hope a couple of your young guys turn out to be good enough to make up for the lose in quality you'll get as your stars decline. And even then it's probably a wash.

McGuire always a bridesmaid... Just the tip.

I never understood that sentiment, to me it makes zero sense. "Is player X going to win us a Stanley Cup? No, so you don't add him"... No single player can win a Stanley Cup, that is why you need to add "pieces". A better question would be, can player X help us win games? Will he make us a better team? Yes, so you add him. I think Boyle does make us a better team, but would he be my number one choice? No. Do we need to add other pieces besides a Boyle to help us win the Stanley Cup? Absolutely. With Boyle we could have something like... Kronwall - Ericsson DeKeyser - Smith Ouellet - Boyle Lashoff OR With Niskanen we could have something like... Kronwall - Ericsson DeKeyser - Niskanen Ouellet - Smith Lashoff Which one looks better? I like option two better but option one wouldn't be the worst thing, and is certainly an upgrade over last year, in my opinion...

If it's on a one year deal, yes. We'll certainly have the cap space, so at least from a fan's perspective, it's largely irrelevant. We're not the ones paying him.

How comes? Too old? Or more the fact that KH will probably sign him to a 3 year deal?