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A couple of reasons: 1) Mrazek won't get any better in Grand Rapids. Or at least, he could improve much faster playing in the NHL, even as a backup. 2) If Holland makes the moves he should make this off-season, the team won't be so terrible and the quality of our third string backup won't matter as much because a loss won't kill us to the same degree it did this season. 3) What's the point in having high quality replacements if the players they are replacing aren't significantly better to begin with?

Brodeur hasn't been good for years now. Even as a backup I don't see the point in bringing him here. Honestly, I'd rather Mrazek get the backup job. Goalies can't just jump into the starting role, and they all have to backup at some point. So the AHL argument about "getting experience" doesn't really hold in this case. Better for him to get 30 games in the NHL than 60 in the AHL at this point.

Backup is our least important position. Whether Monster comes back, they bring someone else in or Mrazek comes up, I don't really care. Defense. Defense. Defense. And then maybe a top 6 forward. But DEFENSE.

That's why no Cup win by the Wings will likely compare to the one in 1997 for me. After watching them through the 80s, to get so close then get crushed by the Devils in '95, it just felt like they were never going to win one. Thinking that Yzerman may become one of those great players who never get to hoist the Cup. It's what made that one so special.

I can't tell if its a blow or not...i can't read it. all this kids or vet talk. I am in the side of signing two vet D men to let the kids get their feet wet for the next couple seasons. No Q or K...i like Morris and Mitchell (although I am sure Willie would like to stay in LA.) Whether you trade Smith or not, adding two vets like that makes this team harder to play against and doesn't require throwing two (more) rookies into the lineup...can't expect all of them to workout so quick like Nyke and Sheahan.

I don't understand why so many people are eager to get rid of Lashoff. He's 23 years old with one full NHL season under his belt. He won't set the world on fire, but he's big, pretty physical, and has a cap hit of $725,000 for the next two seasons. Lashoff will likely improve and will look better when the whole blueline gets more stability. He's worth keeping around for a couple seasons to see if he at least settles into a big physical bottom pairing guy. Kindl however, needs to go. The bummer is he's signed for three more years at $2.4 millions.

Well, full disclosure: I'm biased. I really like Mrazek, a lot. I think he's good enough right now to be a starter in the NHL. I'd like to see him make his case for being our #1.

Your entire point earlier was "what if Zetterberg and Ericsson played". You're playing the "what if" game too. I'm just being a little more realistic. Odds are against any of the kids being as good as Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Babcock and Holland have each said so explicitly. So resting our hopes on "the kids" is a recipe for failure. It would probably be a good idea to move SOME of them for established NHL talent while they've still got value. Otherwise we may find that five years from now we've got a bunch of decent talent and nothing to write home about. The two teams in the Cup right now are full of star players that weren't drafted by either team. Mike and Brad Richards, Jeff Carter, Rick Nash, Martin St. Louis, Marian Gaborik, were all traded for and they're playing huge roles for their respective teams. They weren't acquired for peanuts. We've got HUGE amounts of young talent. Would it kill us to move SOME of it for established players?

Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Weiss, Franzen, Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, Sheahan, Mantha, Alfredsson, Athanasiou... We need a top-four defenseman like whoa.

I posted it more for the reaction tweet. Brodeur is disgusting and I want no part of him on this team.

If we sign Brodeur, I will riot.

Holland is like someone who inherits a big savings account, and then lets it dwindle down over the years without supplementing his income. Account will be almost empty when Datsyuk and Zetterberg retire.

Lashoff.

I'm starting to wonder if you even watch the same team as me. Absolutely none of those guys were deadline pick-ups. Shanahan and Hasek were trades but they happened very early in the season. The rest were off-season Free Agent signings. We spent to the cap this past season, and while we got handled pretty easily by Boston, we gave Chicago all they could handle last season and were a Danny Dekeyser Injury away from potentially adding another cup. It's also been 4 years since we played Phoenix in the playoffs and we swept them then, so I'm not sure what you're talking about there. Back to our deadline moves, Holland pulled the trigger on one this past deadline and it's been the most commonly criticized move he's made in years (besides re-signing Cleary). Who doesn't? Are Wings fans so spoiled that we get angry because we've gone a whole 6 years without a cup? Leaf fans have been waiting going on 50 years... have some perspective.

Cletus for Predators = Perfection.

I'm starting to feel old. Can't believe it's been that long. I started being a hardcore fan two years earlier in 95 when I was 8. I haven't missed a wings game since then. Still remember the night of Vladys accident. I was physically sick to my stomach and couldn't sleep and wasn't even old enough to really grasp the significance of that event.

The price tag will still be too high, unless they are willing to take Franzen as the main piece.

Anyone else starving for real trade rumors and not hypotheticals? I'm dying here.

It's almost like there's this cosmic plan unfolding. That the universe has "course-corrected" so that we can not only acquire a top-four defenseman, but do so comfortably. Think about it. The unreal number of injuries revealing four top-six-worthy kids in Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan, Jurco. Nyquist setting the world on fire. The kid line turning heads. Mantha - the kind of prospect any GM would kill for - being handed to us on a silver platter and then silencing his critics with a monster season. The six young NHL-ready defensemen, all of whom are looking like former first-round picks. Tyler Bertuzzi having the season he had. Glendening showing his mettle against Stamkos and Crosby. Athanasiou looking like a potential top-sixer. Pulkkinen tearing it up for the Griffins. DeKeyser choosing the Wings. A team like, I dunno, the Sens would probably love to have Andersson or Almqvist or Callahan or Ferraro. Full credit to Team Holland on this front. Having this many promising young assets while always making the playoffs and never picking in the top twelve and never rebuilding - it's incredible, absolutely incredible. But my point is, it almost seems too perfect, doesn't it? It's like this had to happen. Is there perhaps some defenseman out there who's supposed to become a Wing and help lead us to glory? Or is the idea that we truly have all we need, and those special players - say, Ouellet and Pulkkinen - are going to rise to the surface this season and turn us into a contender? Maybe I have it backwards with my Holland bashing. Maybe the bold, risky course of action is pushing for that one last Cup for Datsyuk using only what we have. I guess the argument could be made that anyone can pull off a trade, but not just anyone can amass the kind of young talent we have in our system. Hmmm.

That fan girl squeal every time Sid hits the ice

I'd rather go Kindl, a 4th, and a conditional pick. 2nd if he re-signs, a 2015 5th if he doesn't. I don;t like giving up high picks in a cap league for a rental just to lose him in July.

Hey NHL how about this 15 outdoor games a year so all franchises are getting their NOVEL game, this league the board of governors and the PR are the biggest joke either. Instead of locking out the players one should lockout the leagues frontoffice, because they don't care about integrity nor tradition. our beloved game is going downhill fast.

So it took how many seasons for the league to take a really unique and cool event and completely make it run of the mill?