Leaderboard

To be honest, a lot of this Alfredsson or Jurco talk is starting to piss me off... The real issue here in my opinion is, we need to get rid of Andersson so we don't lose a kid like Callahan on waivers and we need to get rid of Kindl so we have room for one of the kids... Alfredsson should be on the team if he and the team feel he's fit to play. Beneficial to the team this season without hurting the team in the future... Jurco should be sent down to start the season in the minors. He needs more seasoning in the minors, getting top line minutes and playing in all situations... Andersson should be waived. He has been passed on the depth chart by too many guys to crack the lineup... Callahan should be on the 23 man roster to start the season. He has earned his chance to crack the lineup and would be a welcomed physical presence on the 4th line... Kindl should be traded for a mid to late round draft pick to make room for one of the kids... One of Ouellet / Sproul / Marchenko / Backman should be on the 23 man roster to start the season...

The things Jurco needs to work on can be done in the NHL. He's ready. Even more importantly, he brings a much needed blend of skill and physical play. They can easily keep both Jurco and Alfredsson, Helm or Sheahan centers the third line and the other one between Miller and Abdelkader. Andersson, Cleary, Glendening, Ferraro, and Callahan can fight for the two reserve spots. Any of those 5 would be no great loss in the event they were claimed.

First off, I think this roster is going to be a bit of a mess at the start of the season. All the question marks surrounding Weiss - Will he stay healthy? Who will he find chemistry with? Can he produce like the 2nd line center he's supposed to be? Along with that, we've got Dan Cleary, for at least 10 games, trying to prove he can still play hockey. I'd keep Jurco away from that, for now. Tie goes to the veteran, and even when it's not a tie... well... I think about the way Tatar was mishandled at the beginning of last season and I cringe. I see your point about the carry over bonuses, but the team's got about 15 million in space, and that's not taking into account the cap going up by whatever it will go up by. Only Nyquist, Jurco and Smith to retain - I'm not sure what they'll do with Andersson, but if they keep him, he'll be cheap. Add in whatever bonuses carry over and their new cap hits, and I still think we've got plenty of room. If there are reasons to not bring in Alfie, I don't think carry over bonuses are up there, considering the team is in a pretty good situation. As for the best 12 forwards playing, I agree to an extent. If by "best" you mean the most skilled, I think there's still a need for role players. Jurco would have to be on the 3rd line or above for me to want him on this team. I think that if he can play in an insulated situation in the top 9, he could be up... otherwise, he's better off in GR. Nyquist taking until November to be on the team was a pain... a huge pain. I also think it was a far different situation. You had Bertuzzi, Samuelsson and Cleary expected to play skilled roles when the skill just wasn't there anymore. Here's Gus in the AHL, who can clearly outplay any of those guys in that role, and he's languishing. I'm not sure that's the same situation here. As I've said before, while Jurco showed flashes of brilliance, he also fell off a bit. I think there's still something to be learned in the AHL for Tomas. Alfie's good for "top 6 forward" points - he's not a Samuelsson or Bertuzzi. Apples and oranges, IMO. Alfie's fatigue, if I'm remembering correctly, can be attributed in part to being overplayed during the Olympics. I remember a few people around here ranting about it. Believe me, I'm not confused here - 40+ year-olds aren't going to hold up as well over an 82 game season, but I think last year was a unique situation that contributed to his drop off. Nyquist dropped off, too. It happens to a lot of guys. It's not just an age thing. At the end of the day, I think having a guy who can produce at a .72 PPG clip, even if it's only for 60 or so games, is worth hanging onto. I'm sure it sounds like a cop-out, but I really have concern over how they'd handle Jurco in this situation. I think that if he is on the team, I'd want it to be in an insulated situation. 3rd line minutes on a line with Sheahan-Alfredsson would be fantastic, I think. The issue there is pushing Abdelkader out of the top 9, and into the 4th line with Miller-Helm. It would also mean one of Franzen, Nyquist or Tatar next to Z-Pavs, and I think we know which way Babcock would go on that one. You lost me there. Taking a beaten up, ineffective veteran over one who can still produce for the sake of nostalgia. You stop it right now, Kenny.

I can't speak for krsmith, but I'm certainly not under the impression that Alfredsson is going to lead the Red Wings to a cup, or a 100+ point season. Perhaps the team as a whole, with far less injuries, has a shot at doing better than they did last season. I don't think that's out of the realm of expectation. I don't think Alfredsson is a game breaker, nor is he someone who will be deemed "responsible" for a playoff exit. He's a very reliable player with good pedigree, who gave this team some new looks on the power play. Quite frankly, after you consider his offensive contributions last season, the points per game drop off a fair bit for the players beneath him. I'd say the Red Wings could use those points, especially considering the question marks surrounding Weiss. You need points from somewhere, and Alfredsson is capable of producing them. I don't think many people who are in favor of him coming back give more responsibility to or weight on Alfredsson than that.

Kip, you absolutely did blow my mind... I have absolutely no idea what you are arguing... I say one thing and then you go on a rant about something completely irrelevant to what I am saying... Mind = Blown... I honestly have no idea whatsoever what your point was in listing all the players that would and wouldn't have helped us due to injury... Completely lost... No Frank, you're right... There definitely weren't any fans of those teams blaming their short comings in those seasons to injuries... Not one... Only us Wings fans would do such a ludicrous thing...

I'm not going to go back and forth about whether or not this team will face a significant number of injuries or not - I don't think any of us can predict that. I think it'd be pretty insane to see the number of injuries we did last year. I will say that this is the youngest the team has looked in years. The superstars are getting long in the tooth, but this team is also going to be able to lean on younger bodies more than ever. Does that stop a freak accident from happening to Z, Pav, etc? No. I think it minimizes the wear and tear, though. I loved the way the Kid Line played during portions of last season, but I also think that playing Alfredsson on the wing of that 3rd line will benefit Tatar and Sheahan as well. Surrounding the kids with veterans who play the game the "right" way is going to turn them into leaders, and superstars. Can anyone against signing Alfredsson say they would feel the same way if Cleary had not been signed? It's easy to say, "well stop the damage now, we've already got enough veterans". I don't think that has anything to do with Alfredsson being an effective player, because he was. Reality is, playing are going to get hurt, and Jurco, Pulkkinen, etc. are going to be called up throughout the season. I don't care how old the guy is - I don't see a single reason why you wouldn't bring back your highest scoring forward from the previous season. The bottom line for me: Alfredsson was an effective player last season. You re-sign effective players.

I agree with everything except that jurco should be in the minors. Jurco has earned his place in the lineup and should be starting the season on the kid line with sheahan and Tatar. I don't understand how people don't see this. On many nights this was our best line and at times dominated the opposition. Now think what they can do against 3rd lines and 3rd line d-pairings The kid line has more chemistry than anybody on our team with the exception being pav and z. Play them together. As for alfy he should be signed and id really like to see him play with pav and z as he has the hockey iq, skill, and most importantly shot to play well with them and finish their setups. The real problem is the signing of cleary as all of his money could be going to alfy instead. As well he is blocking a guy like Callahan from being up with the big club

This made me laugh so hard! Well done

I was being sarcastic. Couldn't you tell??? I don't think anyone seriously here believes that. The writer is just trying to drum up news in the off-season when there isn't any... and this is the best he could do.

Okay, I think I figured out what you're saying. I think you have a number of points - none of which i was helping you prove. I think you're saying that Bert, Sammy, and Cleary getting injured was a good thing because it took them out of the lineup. To me that's a complicated "what if." For one thing, If those three weren't injured maybe they would've been effective players. To me, Cleary has only been bad the last 2 years and that definitely has something to to with his knee problems. I think Bert was a positive asset until last 2 years and that probably owes to his missing almost all of 12-13 with injuries. If Sammy came here, wasn't injured and played the way he did in Van and FLA he wouldn't have received as many death threats from LGW members. In the 1st quoted section you seem to extend this to say: without injuries to knocked these 3 out we could have been a worse team in the past 5 years due to their collective presence. Even if I allow the idea that that is a positive, you're talking about the effect of injuries in general so the loses of Helm Z, etc would definitely counteract those "positives" and surely you wouldn't end up with a "net positive." Also, you say that injuries didn't "noticeably impact us (for the worse) the four post-seasons before that." (last year). I really disagree with that. 2 years ago when we were a goal away from advancing past the Hawks, I think it's very debatable whether a healthy Helm and Dekeyser could have pushed us over the edge. Either way, not having those 2 had a noticeably negative impact on the team in my opinion. As for your "edit:" statement, where you say that injuries were a positive thing even last year because they allowed Nyquist, Jurco, Sheahan to get in the lineup. This goes against your own statement that: "You don't get to pick and choose the effect that injuries have. Gotta take the bad with the good." The injuries to D,Z, Weiss etc. clearly counteract the positive of getting Nyquist,Jurco and the Teletubby. As a sidenote: Sammy, Eaves, Tootoo were put in the AHL. Cleary, Bert were healthy scratches at times. All the things could have allowed Nyquist to be on the team. I realize that some of these moves were done after and possibly because of Nyquist's move up to the NHL, but there were many possible ways to get Nyquist on the team and I think he's there by Christmas even without injuries. As for Jurco, Sheahan and how much they play, that's a different story.

Exactly. People remember the two mistakes Stuart made in Game 7, but not how many shots he blocked that playoff run or 2008 on the PK, let alone all of his years in Detroit. Or how not a single Wings d-man besides maybe E has come close to matching Stuart's PK ability since then. Physical, sound defensively and the ideal partner to complement Kronwall. Kronner really was able to contribute at a higher level offensively and play more aggressively with Stuart there to cover for him. It was the perfect deadline acquisition to put the 2008 team over the top. I know there isn't much positive history for comparison, but for me that is easily Holland's best trade since the lockout.

what if i told you we can have both aflie and jurco. someone will get injured and jurco will get called up. i dont see why this is such a big argument. aflie led our team in scoring last season, his contract wont be anything big because we dont have that much cap space. sign him and he will put up 40 something points and we will be happy.

The blues got demolished. Boston got knocked out, as did Pittsburgh. All of those teams did not win cups when they had those injuries.

As a person who BECAME a Gretzky fan because of the 1993 playoffs (still shocked when I see that was Lidstrom on ice for the GWG against) and eliminating TO to get to the Finals, I can tell you that: No way in HELL was Gretzky anywhere near Yzerman in defense - ever. No way does Gretzky do what Stevie Y does in 97 and especially 98 And we STILL had Yzerman do some great things in the 2002 playoffs. Now if we got Gretzky for Gallant and some OTHER picks, we have something, but Yzerman? No effing way.

Yes, yes, I know. The Wings lost the Cup because of Stuart. Or was it because of not suspending Malkin? I can never remember which. It surely couldn't have been that they got outplayed by a hungrier team. By pinning the Cup loss on Stuart, you're kinda making my point. He's definitely an underappreciated Wings player.

Maybe because this years team is a heck of a lot better than those teams up front. Were loaded with talent up front. D, z, mule, alfy, Nyq, Tatar, Weiss, sheahan, jurco, helm, Abby, etc. I'd say we have one of the best forward corpse in the league. Way better than 2 years ago when we lost in 7 to Chicago who we should have beat.

He's not speaking literally, he's speaking figuratively. When people nostalgically look back at Yzerman, they remember him how he was in the Bowman years and rarely remember the early part of his career. He wasn't a selfless, gutsy, two way, leader back then. He was a showy, one dimensional, goal scorer. At the time of the Gretzky trade, Yzerman wasn't the Stevie Y that we all remember as "The Captain", though he was in fact the captain of the team. That's what he's saying.

Bans didn't like tootoo? I'm a bit more worried that the Tootoos are honeymooning in Hawaii and Herlmer is with them. Now that's carrying the load above and beyond the call o' duty. Or maybe this is a different occasion. Or maybe Herlmer and his lady split and Tootoo is teaching him how to pick up chicks. Commence the motorboat jokes. I'm done for the day. EDIT: was misspelling Herlmer as Hermler. Can't have that.

Doesn't everyone love articles that make a big deal about nothing? Girl weighs 120 pounds, Helm squats with what...600?

Booooooring. Tomas Tatar could do that drunk.

I find it crazy that some people still actually believe that the best thing for the team and for the player (Jurco) is for him to play with the big club to start next season. It is not. Jurco would benefit in so many ways from playing another year down in the minors. He is still a kid, and could use another partial to full season down with the Griffs, getting top line minutes, top power play time, working out the kinks in his game, because believe it or not there definitely still are some kinks in his game. Even if we weren't going to re-sign Alfie for whatever reason, I would still want Jurco down in Grand Rapids to at least start the season. Signed, Jurco's biggest fan.

Marty and Probert on the same team? Wow! Then again my favourite Probert fights were with McSorley.

I'm actually really surprised about the people that would have been willing to trade Yzerman for Gretzky. I wouldn't have even considered trading them straight up, let alone the other pieces that would have had to be involved to get that deal done. Yzerman was my favorite player back then and the sole reason I am a Red Wings fan today. To be quite honest, if Yzerman would have been traded back then, I would probably be an Oilers fan today... Scary... I'm definitely glad that Holland and Jimmy D are much more loyal to this team and players than most fans would be... How many people would trade Zetterberg and pieces to Pittsburgh for Crosby? I know there are definitely quite a few that would but I definitely would not. Hank is our captain and I wouldn't want to lose him, even if it meant getting the best player in the world for him. Even knowing that Zetterberg may only have another 5 solid years left and Crosby has another 15, I still wouldn't do it. Crazy? Probably, but that's my opinion...

Whoa... Andreas is #2 to no man Everybody talks about this Lidstrom guy, but as soon as Lilja left this team we went downhill.... Dots connected yet?