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I make about one post a year and I have to waste it on this garbage.... BOOO, these reporters are reporting on the news and not on whatever their opinion might be, BOOO. This is being played like politics and a perceived lack of interest in bashing management is being equated to condoning said moves. These are not the same things, everyone is taking mental shortcuts to the conclusion and bypassing the idea that media SHOULD report ONLY the facts. People are so quick to forget that because it is sports, it is journalism too, adding opinion taints that. Let bloggers speculate, speculation is what you people seem to desire, but is also the reason these speculators don't have credentials, because they only want those credentials to make their asinine opinions seem more valid when they are arguing in their own comments section. Nobody knows what a good signing is until the season is over and we all have 20/20 hindsight, your intuition is not proof of any fact and your anger is not a catalyst for change. All I read when I see this garbage is a lot of spoiled fans who even after making the playoffs for 23 years in a row and winning more Stanley Cups than any team in a quarter century, think they could do better and sit around bitterly whining about a few depth moves being made. Grow up Hockeytown! 29 other teams lose the cup or on said free agent, I can't wait for the article to come out saying player X didn't want to come to Detroit because of the entitled fans, well I guess I could buy a website, call myself a blogger, write the opinion myself, use anonymous sources and then ***** because no one takes me serious.

Everyone has a job to do. If you're in PR, you have a responsibility to the team to make the team look good. That's what they hire you to do. The team is the one who's paying the PR guy, not the newspapers. As for reporters/bloggers, they can write whatever they want within the laws of libel and the standards of their paper (in the case of reporters). If the PR guy for the Wings doesn't work well with some reporters/bloggers who don't report the team in a good light, he's just doing his job. It doesn't silence the reporters/bloggers. It just means that they don't have a red carpet that leads straight to their information. There's news and there's opinion. If a reporter is reporting news (i.e. Wings sign Player X) then what will be reported is the facts. If the reporter is posting opinion (i.e. Player X is the next big thing) then that is what will be published. The PR people have a responsibility to provide the news reporters with their facts. Any opinion reporters can take those facts and comment at will, but it's the PR guy's job to see that the news reporters get accurate data. As a hyper-fan, I'd love to get more inside information, but these guys are people with lives and it's also the PR guy's job to protect that whilst still giving fans access to the players. If you work for the team, you're not going to work with a reporter/blogger who wants access so he can rip a player apart or throw him under the bus. That's not taking care of your team, which is part of your job. There has to be a level of trust there if we expect the players to open up to the media for us. I'm checking the news daily in hopes of seeing "Danny DeKeyser re-signed" and when I do, I will first seek out the facts, and then come here to get all of the opinion I can handle on the subject. Sure, I will probably read some opinion articles and some blogs if I run into them, but at the end of the day, any one of us here who is reasonably literate could be a blogger if we really wanted to.

I consider myself a big fan of the Red Wings but knowledgable - like this blogger is pushing it - would put it way too far. Anyway, after reading news how the Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Philadelphia and Boston are handling their players I can understand why organisations don't want to give too much out. The only point I somewhat agree is that the team and especially management aren't taking critics very well, as proven by an Email from a poster here a few days ago. But the media has to understand one thing: The job of a hockey organisation is to ice the best possible roster, players are paid to perform on the ice not to be media-monkeys. Putting myself into Kessel's shoes I would have declined every interview with a Torontosun reporter till they are accepting that I'm shy and don#t want to talk to them, till then no comments no interviews. Sometimes the media thinks they are way more important when in reality they aren't even important. btw. for the 24/7 stuff the media considered it "boring" boohoo down to earth hockey players acting like always, so no forced stories or Bryzgalovs quotes for you ? Cry me a river, I thought the insight about Babcocks decisions and how he reacts to pressure have been outstanding.

An update: I know people are unhappy about the signing, but enough with the Cleary jokes in every single thread on the forum. For starters, they're usually not that funny as it gets old very fast. Second, it makes it difficult to carry on a conversation about the actual topic. Thank you.

I don't know what there is to be confused about, we have absolutely no direction...

Worth a read.

I appreciate the updates you give us predsfan and about the song, there are better choices but who am I to judge ?

so, bottom line, to everyone involved in the NHL around the league, from other GM's to players to media, the Red Wings are pricks who you don't deserve to approach... Pretty much sums up why other GM's want to rape us, UFA's now avoid us and we can't get any love in other media markets. All while the Detroit Lemmings paint a beautiful sunny day, everyone else knows better. I guess if we are "real fans" of the Red Wings, we are not allowed to ask the tough questions or criticize the team operations or just plain old not like something about them... Well hell, I guess I aint a real fan then, because I NEVER get in line and accept, I question everything and even ***** enough about some stuff to piss a lot of you guys off! I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks for the post! It opened my eyes even more... Changes are needed...NOW.

They're anonymous because many currently work within the Wings org and obviously don't want to jeopardize their jobs.

It's not necessarily a bad thing, they all get promoted after working with him

I doubt care about granato's past if he can help our team play better

I don't really have a problem with how Alfie played. He was alright. But I still just think we'll run into the same exact problem we have for the last five or six years. Good teams will keep us to the outside and block shots. Alfie doesn't help with that. If we don't get guys into the lineup that can play (and score, sorry Abby) around the crease then we'll just keep running up against the same obstacles year after year.

I would sign Alfie all the way. He still has it! We need that right handed shot.

Dallas, a team that was the last place team in the Western Conference to secure a playoff spot and hasn't been relevant since they lost to the Wings back in 2008. Tampa Bay, a team that actually did pretty well last year and then got swept by Montreal. The past two seasons before that they didn't even make the playoffs. This is with Yzerman at the helm who was considered to be better than Holland. Sure, these teams seemed to address their teams needs, but we will see how the product on the ice looks and how they do in playoffs. Same here man. I guess I am not a butthurt fan. Sure, I wanted to see a high priced free agent come into play. At the same time though, I am ok with the moves that Holland has made so far. Giving the kids a chance is what he needed to do and he is going to do it. Cleary is just an insurance policy. He won't be beating out someone for a roster spot if they are better. Being objective would be looking at the entire situation. Suter and Parise wanted to play in Minnesota. They have ties to the area. Same with Vanek. Boyle has family in New York and requested to play there for less since the Rangers were against the cap. Players will do what it takes to go somewhere they want to go. When Dekeyser chose to come to Detroit, and the contracts were the same no matter where he went, did you give credit to Holland for this?

Yeah, if whoever edited that doesn't like the management style of the best GM in sports, maybe they should follow another team..

Get this kid on the first line with D and Z, and Mantha on the third with Tatar and Sheahan and I'll call our forward corps improved over last year. Now if only we could figure out a way to improve an abysmal defense that absolutely, positively, 100% could not be any better than it currently is because fate is against Ken Holland.

Those are big knees to fill

What a buncha ungrateful fans editing his page like that...

ok folks, let's please get back on topic about this great off season acquisition by Holland.

Yes and Dan Cleary can play better hockey than anyone on this board too. Like Cleary, Ken Holland is a professional (in theory), who is paid a LOT of money to do his job. Pretty much anyone in a professional field is better at their job than someone who isn't part of that field. But that certainly doesn't mean that an outsider can't objectively see when someone is sucking at their job. Edit: To add to that, if the new standard for managing the Wings is, "well, he's better than fans on a message board," we're in a s**t-tonne of trouble.

Haven't you heard? In the playoffs anything can happen! It's like willy wonka's hockey factory

WE LIKE OUR TEAM!

Holland on looking for a D trade: "I don't know that what's out there is any better than what we got in our system," Holland said. "Players (free agents) would be more experienced, but are they any better than (Ryan) Sproul or (Xavier) Ouellet? We got pretty good kids." THEN LET THEM PLAY YOU ******* IMBECILE!!!

Good, now Holland can use this video to entice other GM's into trading him for a legwand

I remember reading somewhere that EA stated doing the commentary is the most difficult and expensive aspect of developing a sports title, that's why it's been Gary and Bill for the last 7 years or so unchanged. I for one support this entirely and i'm pretty excited about the change. I am a GM for a League Gaming team and play at least 1,500 online games per year, I compete in organized OTP leagues so I definitely overplay the series. Hearing the same commentary for the last 7 years has pretty much forced me to turn it off in the options menu entirely. While i'm not thrilled about Eddie being here, the rest don't much bother me and it's a much needed change.