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Like who? Everyone acts like because we lost out on Parise and Suter, which was solely due to geography, that we somehow aren't a "destination" team. Name all these top free agents that Holland pursued that the Wings didn't get. Weiss and Alfredsson were the top two UFA's last year and the Wings signed them both. Then before that every other team in the league was salivating over Danny DeKeyser. Who got him? Oh, yeah, that team no one wants to go to.

What does that even mean lol Franzen and holland bashing is mindless spam. Throw their names in a lame joke that has nothing to do with what is being discussed. There's about eight of them on each page of every thread

You're not comprehending. Whether you like it or not, Stephen Weiss and Daniel Alfredsson were likely considered #1 and #2 of a weak free agent market. (Val Filppula could be in the mix as well, but he was leaving the Wings) Whether you think they are good players or not is neither here nor there. Other teams wanted these guys, (Boston was rumored to be interested in Alfie) and they both signed with Detroit. Again, who are all these other top free agents that Holland pursued that shunned the Wings? Even Parise and Suter didn't reject the Wings due to money or going to a "contender". They went to the Minnestoa Wild. You know, that storied franchise in that swanky urban city with a chance to win the Cup every year. Pre salary cap, free agents came to the Wings because Ilitch could and would offer the most money. Now with the salary cap, that advantage has been taken away. It has nothing to do with Holland's abilities or Detroit not being a "contender" or a destination city. The Wings don't go after many free agents, but when they do, more often than not, they get their man. Parise and Suter were the exception, not the rule.

As for those worrying about the young Dmen, don't. Yes Oullett, Sproul, and Marchenko only have 2 years that they can go down to GR without passing waivers. But what is the chance that all 3 turn out? About 0. Plus 2 years from now Kronwall will be 36. His NTC is also gone. Lashoff is our 7th as of today. That makes 2 possible spots right there. Not to mention since when is having to much talent a bad thing? maybe 1 or 2 get moved to fill another whole on the roster. There is no down side here.

No, because that would be unfair... *cough* Cap Hit Recapture *cough*

People are calling Niskanen a solid player. He is. He was also the Pens's #4 d and despite being solid /good, he's going to get top pair money, if not #1 money. It'd be like paying as much for a Focus as you would a Mustang because you need a new car. Parise and Suter went to Minny because of their matching contracts and that's where their wives wanted them to go. There were also lots of free agents who didn't wan to come here before the cap, but back then your third option was still good.

Oh nice. Now that the Hawks and Kings are losing guys, they implement this. Where the hell was this rule 4 years ago when the rest of the league started slurping on Detroit’s teet? Typical. One would have to think that sooner or later hockey karma will kick in.

Not surprising - and I don't mean that in a Holland-hating sense. I'm willing to bet the Leafs would offer him $6M x 4 years if they thought it'd get them their man. (Assuming Shanny has no real power.) Not sure if they'd be able to pull that off, cap-wise. But you get what I'm saying. Niskanen's a solid defenseman in the prime of his career who has all the qualities we're looking for in our Quincey upgrade. If you have to give a little more than you'd like, so be it.

I think perhaps what the issue with there being a biased opinion against KH is that we will probably never truly know what offers he makes, what trades he actually tries to make, and how close he has been in the past to signing guys (like Suter) to actually keep this team rolling along. If Weiss was all KH could end up with last offseason, then he had to take him right? Because we'd just lost our 2C in Fil so that hole needed plugging. Would I like KH to make 1 or 2 moves to bring in some better players to help compliment our lineup? Sure. But I think we're all a little too quick to judge when we don't see what we like, because at the end of the day there's 29 other teams out there who are trying to do the same thing.

KH: "Hey Matt, you should sign with us". MN: "Why would I do that? You're a worse team than the one I'm leaving and you've done nothing to improve." KH: "Oh by the way, we're going to need you to sign for less than you'd make elsewhere". MN: Lol.

Chicago just spent a little over 2 million combined on Ben Smith and Antti Raanta. That's just over half their available cap space. Unless they move out significant salary I'd say they're out of the Kesler sweepstakes. That leaves only Anaheim unless he's willing to expand his list.

I agree that was a "safe bet post" by Eklund. That's like me saying there are some free agents ready to sign with other teams but they are going to wait till July 1st to announce it.

Well he did say in an interview (which I read in one of Malik's diatribes so I'm no willing to go dig it up) that term is "generally" more important to him than salary. Though I'm not suggesting anyone interpret that as Niskanen saying "I'm looking for long term to the EXCLUSION of salary". Like I said, I'm expecting 5 years at less than 6 mil. In other words, Wisniewski money and term...which he's worth. Obviously he COULD get more elsewhere, but only from a bottom dweller with unlimited cap space. And why would Matt Niskanen walk away from playing with Crosby or Malkin for the rest of his career to play on a worse team less likely to win? This kid's looking to win. I don't think he prices himself out of the market for that reason alone.

That is a terrible idea. So we would give up a 30 goal scorer that without we wouldn't have been in the playoffs. Plus a potential 30 goal scoring power forward for a guy who most people project as a borderline 1, strong 2 dman. Ekblad is no Doughty or Weber...

Jeff Blashill. I'm also hoping it's retroactive for at least this summer because then we'll be compensated for Peters too. Especially cknsidering these things happened a week apart.

Wings aren't team Bettman west..

I get that if you can make more money, then you should try and make more money, but they are complete morons if they are honestly asking for 12 million a season each. No matter the cap, this will handcuff their team and, in the end, make them less competitive than they can be. So, I guess what I'm saying is, I hope Chicago is foolish enough to give them what they're asking for.

It would have been great for us about 2 or 3 years ago..who do we have left for other teams to poach?

There's a difference between wanting to talk to agents and players and actually going forward and signing someone. Holland is talking to everyone in order to do his due diligence. When/if he finds out that Niskanen won't sign for less than ridiculous money, Boyle only wants a 3 year deal, Moulson thinks he's worth 6 years, $6.5 mil per, etc. and he doesn't think that they're worth close to those deals, he'll move on and sign another player to a more or less sane contract.

I’d do Tatar + Ouellet + Andersson + Kindl + 1st for Kesler and Vancouver’s 2nd round pick (36th). Would they do that I wonder?

I'm sure they've already talked tentatively about cost/term, etc. Nisknanen's agent isn't going to waste his time. Whatever Holland offered they'e at least considering, which means it isn't absurdly off the mark.

I don't know much about Niskanen but I do know we need an offensive defenseman more than anything else. Quincey was not. He was just a middling suckhole. We need Niskanen to generate offense. Not be the ultimate defender. We are already stacked with defensive guys. Sooner or later we need to control the puck, move it and help set up the offense, which Niskanen seems to do. We get better defensively just by subtracting Quincey and Kindl. Then we get better by adding Niskanen or some other offensive, puck control guy. It makes us a more dangerous team to play against. Niskanen is not the final piece, but he gets us back into making the playoffs easier. Back to where we have been for 20 years. Then, with him added to the core, add your pieces. Bottom line, we need someone like him to be more than a bubble team. Then, the additional pieces are gravy. Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

If he couldn't "immediately" play for our terrible defense, then there aren't many places he would have played around the league.

He wasn't ignored, he's not good enough.

Hows about Tatar plus prospects/picks for O'Reilly? Also, thanks. After the one you made the other day, I had to make a couple for future usage.