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I'd rather have two Kronwalls than 1 Subban. I think balance is going to be our key to success in the future. If our defense prospects hit their potential we won't have a Subban or karlsson but we'll be able to ice a much better defensive lineup than those teams

I can't speak for anyone else but I wouldn't be that happy with anything over 7, and I wouldn't be able to tolerate anything over 8.

We have 5 players over the age of 31.....Franzen (34), Zetterberg (33), Cleary (35), Kronwall (33) and Datsyuk (36) and 3 of those 5 are elite talents. Your statement makes it sound like our team is littered with older players who aren’t performing. We have two in Cleary and Franzen.

Well aside from the fact that if you paid each player one million you wouldn't hit the cap floor and ten each would be way over the cap. You have to look at the fact that each player ISNT paid equally. And contracts like this DO drive up other salaries. So come time for a new cba they will definitely say the players make too much money again, and budda boom budda Bing, another lockout

They are.

I think Subban is a real good player and all. But they should have let someone offer sheet the guy and taken the picks. One guy, even a top flight defenseman, doesn't make a Stanley Cup winner. This is way too much for any single player, and their depth will suffer for it. They'll have a never ending string of plugs and inexperienced kids populating their team for the next 8 years.

So you've essentially gone and just contradicted yourself. You say that we are 'a basement team', now we're a top team? All in the span of one page of a forum thread? Words in CAPS aside, you're opinion that we are a mediocre team and the fact that you think that everyone in the east has got better while we have 'stayed the same', is precisely that. Opinion. I believe that lots of teams in the East didn't get better. Some stayed the same, and some got worse. That is my opinion. Let's have a brief look at the playoff teams from last season in the East and those on the bubble who missed out: Bruins - Lost Iginla, lost Thornton. Are still over the cap and haven't yet signed Reilly Smith or Torey Krug yet, so they're going to have to move someone. While still an elite team, losing a 30 goal scorer and a key 4th line component doesn't make them better, it means they got worse Tampa - IMO the team in the East that improved the most. Added Brenden Morrow and Brian Boyle up front to replace Purcell and Thompson most likely. They re-signedCallahan. Solidified their backup position by signing Nabokov. Big addition on the backend is Stralman, and they acquired a reclamation project in Garrison. With a healthy Bishop and possible Drouin addition, they definitely improved. Montreal - Subtractions - Gorges, Briere, Vanek, Gionta. Acquisitions, PA Parenteau, Gilbert and Malhotra. And they haven't got the Subban mess sorted out yet, which if they don't agree to a long term deal before the arbiter awards the 1 year deal each side proposed, then they'll have the entire thing hanging over their heads. No way this team improved. Pittsburgh - Losses - Niskanen, Orpik, Neal, Engellend, Jokinen. Acquisitions, Spaling, Hornqvist, Downie, Comeau, Ehrhoff. Are they better? I really don't see how. Spaling and Hornqvist don't make up for the loss of Neal, and neither does Ehrhoff over both Orpik and Niskanen. Even if they didn't get worse, they certainly didn't improve. NYR - Losses - Boyle, Richards, Stralman, Pouliot, Dorsett. Acquisitions - Stempniak, Hunwick, Dan Boyle, Glass. So they lost arguably their best line in the postseason, their top D man and only really got reclamation projects and Dan Boyle, who as we all know is on the way out. Am I missing something here? Because I don't see how the Rangers improved either. In fact I think they got worse Philadelphia - Losses - Downie, Gervais, Hartnell. Acquisitions - Stortini, Nick Schultz, Umberger. While they didn't improve, they didn't get worse either. Columbus - Losses - Nick Schultz, Skille, Comeau, MacKenzie, Nikitin, Umberger. Acquisitions - Hartnell, D'Amigo. Can you honestly sit here and say that they improved as well? Detroit - Losses - Legwand. Acquisitions - None. Re-signed Cleary and Quincey. So we didn't get in worse IMO, but I would argue that we got slightly better IF Pavel and Hank stay healthy and the kids contribute. The reason I'm optimistic is that at no point last year did we see this team with Pavel and Hank healthy play with the likes of Nyquist, Sheahan, Tatar, Jurco and co. And this is the key. Our top players stay healthy so that those young guys have less pressure and contribute more. A return to form from Howie will also help, as would 60 decent games out of Weiss. While I'm not oblivious to the fact that all that might not happen, I'm still optimistic that even if some of those things happen, we'll be a good team. So right now we definitely didn't get worse, but we could get better pending health. Washington - Key losses - Grabovski, Halak. Additions - Niskanen, Orpik, Justin Peters. So they got better on the backend, and the loss of Grabovski will probably be replaced by a full season out of Kuznetsov. So they got slightly better, although their goaltending is slightly shaky NJ - Losses - Fayne, Volchenkov. Acquisitions - Clemmensen, Havlat, Cammalleri. So they lost on the backend but improved their secondary scoring upfront, while also re-signing Jagr. So they got slightly better. Ottawa - Losses - Spezza, Hemsky. Acquisitions - Legwand, Chiasson, Guptill. No way these guys got better. Legwand and Chiasson do not replace Spezza and Hemsky. These guys might be challenging for McDavid. Toronto - Losses - McClement, Kulemin, Raymond, Bolland, D'amigo, Gunnarsson. Acquisitions - Winnik, Booth, Santorelli, Robidas, Polak, Frattin. They kind of replaced what they lost. They might have got slightly better on the backend, but other than that, I don't really see much improvement here from the Leafs. Probably stayed the same. Now, this is just my opinion, but by my count, that makes 5 teams on that list that I think got worse (Boston, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Rangers), 3 that got better (Tampa, Washington, New Jersey) and 4 that stayed put (Detroit, Columbus, Philadelphia, Toronto). With that in mind, I'd have to say that if healthy, the Wings have a decent shot here.

Care to explain exactly what an NBA attitude is? Putting yourself always over the team?? I was never really a fan, but on CH24 he just seemed like a young, goofy, outgoing, but humble guy. When he made stupid mistakes during games he was the first one to own up to it. He seemed immature when he came into the league but as you pointed out he is absolutely operating under a microscope so his every mistake is magnified a thousand times. He is only 25 years old after all. He's an extremely talented young player, a Norris winning defenseman, and their franchise. He got pretty much what people expected, especially given his bridge contract. The Canadiens just locked him up through all his prime years.

If we had a player like Subban and he was given this contract, I doubt many people here would be upset.

Inflation happens. Kane and Toews set the new standard, and I'm sure their agents had them do it on purpose. No biggie. Everything goes up over time. People acting shocked and annoyed are being ridiculous. Did they think the cap would go up and everyone would just keep making their old salaries? The world doesn't work like that. Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

...and Florida was stuck using Kopecky for it's model. Pretty cool. I love how the older teams seem to go forever and then, all of a sudden, they add that newfangled piece of equipment called a "helmet".

Most definitely. I've been waiting for it for a while now. It'll come sooner or later because these escalating contracts will only continue to get bigger and bigger. It is fundamentally, a joke. PK is a great player, yes, but no guy is worth that kind of money IMO.

I hope these contracts aren't slowly moving us toward another lockout.....

This cap hit seems like they used Quincey's contract as comparison.

Yeah, that's a good salary cap we have. FML. 10.5 for Toews & Kane and now 9M for PK? Crazy

The Reebok jerseys and the unnecessary, obtrusive stripes have ruined hockey jerseys. One of the worst mistakes the NHL made. I've said this a million times, but the best jerseys are typically the earlier ones. The teams that decided to drastically change things just to sell more merchandise usually chose a worse design than the one before. Someone here once told me that people tend to prefer the jerseys that teams wore when that person was younger. That is also true. I prefer the jerseys teams wore in the early 90's when I was a kid. However, looking back at those jerseys, they really were simpler and more memorable. The NHL needs to get rid of the verticle stripes running down from the armpits, and the idiotic horizontal stripe running below the shoulder and neck. f*** Reebok.

To be clear... I don't necessarily believe things are going to go especially well for the Wings this season. The point I'm trying to make is this: for all the issues the Wings have, the teams that are, generally, considered tops in the East really aren't much better than the Wings, maybe not even better at all when you really get down to it (unless we're talking about the Bruins, who are among the best in the league because they have Chara, Bergeron, Rask, Lucic, Krejci, et al.) I'm not justifying Ken Holland's inaction. If anything, I feel the conference being wide open almost makes him beholden to bring in a quality player or two that could give us a shot in the arm and maybe help us gain an edge over the other playoff-worthy teams. Nor am I saying there aren't some very good teams in the East. I do think the Habs are slightly better than the Wings, but the key word is "slightly." It wasn't so long ago that we were all jacked up about a possible first-round date with the Penguins. We truly felt the Wings could take the Penguins out, and Penguins fans were praying for Columbus, and then the Hurricanes happened. Hell, like I said before, it wasn't so long ago that we took out an excellent Ducks team and almost did the same to an even better Blackhawks team, all with a roster that I feel was inferior to what we have now. And y'know what else? A part of me wants us to finish in the basement so we can, hopefully, snag a genuinely elite prospect, maybe even one who could make an immediate impact. Hell, I probably wouldn't be totally opposed to tanking for a shot at a generational talent. So it's not like I'm in denial about where we stand. I just think this Wings team is better than this past season says we are. So much went wrong for us, but we squeaked into the playoffs. What if so much were to go right for us this season? Answer: we wouldn't be squeaking into the playoffs. What if even just a couple of the things that went wrong for us in 2013-14 were to go right for us in 2014-15? Answer: we wouldn't be squeaking into the playoffs. I'm cautiously optimistic. I think that's the way to go.

What facts have you presented? I'll quote a rational individual I know: "Troll Harder" I guess you didn't catch it, but that's not what he's laughing at bud

Exactly, HS. I liked the guy a lot. Quite frankly, if someone offered me big money to return to an old job that I liked but couldn't do as well as I once did it, and I knew they knew all about my physical state, I'd sure give it a go, especially if I was unemployed and looking for work. I just wish he could have played one more game (not necessarily for us) to hit the 700 mark. Best wishes, Sammy!

Well said!

Agreed. All shin pad assassin jokes aside, Sammy was a bargain during his first stay here in Detroit. He had good size, was irritating to play against, and put up good numbers for his salary. It's just unfortunate that Holland keeps repeating the mistake of bringing back former players, but I hold no ill will for Sammy.

As fun as it is to bash on Sammy, I'll never forget him for starting and finishing this play: Also the two opening goals in Game 1 of the 2008 Finals against the Pens. And the hundreds of logo shots.

That's been said by many fans about many players, but when the goals start going in and the points are being racked up, like him or not it would be impossible not to root for him.

The same could be said if he ever made his way to Detroit.

Comments like these make me want to cancel my subscription to LGWs. Holland is now all of a sudden a bad GM because he didn't sign David friggin Booth? Please.