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Really like it, our farm system has never looked better. The last few years haven't been ideal, but our playoff streak is still intact and Ken Holland is the reason. There isn't a franchise in the league that never has a few average seasons between great ones. His legacy is going on the line here though, if this team struggles and wastes the last few years of Dats/Zetterberg there aren't going to be fans lining up to reminding us of the 3 Stanley Cups we won with him and having the best team in the league from 1997-2010 which is unfortunate. Time will tell if Ken Holland has a master plan with this franchise, or if he's just meddling his last years in mediocrity hoping his past success will be his legacy. My thoughts are you never know what you have until it's gone, and for me I think that rings true for Holland. Fans in Detroit have incredible expectations, which is understood, but I don't know of many hockey GM's in the history of the league that could satisfy this fan bases appetite of not only winning, but winning Stanley Cups for over 20 years. Notice I said the history of the league, I don't think there is a better option for the team right now other than Holland, he knows the players we have in the system, if our goal is to win it all soon he gives us our best option. If we want to tank, and surely waste the last years of Datsyuk/Zetterberg, and hopefully build up to a playoff franchise in 5 years then we should get a young GM and give him the reigns, I just don't think that's that right plan.

Best signing yet. Hollands offseason acquisition is himself. His deadline acquisition will be Babs.

Honestly, I'm disappointed. Holland has pretty clearly run out of ideas these last few seasons, so I don't have a lot of hope for significant changes to rebuild the franchise over the next 4 years. Who knows though. Maybe he'll finally realize the crap he's done lately isn't working? Maybe?? If I were Babcock I'd start looking to other teams.

I honestly don't think the guy is a bad general manager - he's proven just the opposite over the years. I just think some aspects of the game have passed him by - namely making moves and having a good relationship with other general managers. That being said, results are results. Regardless of his intentions, Holland hasn't made too many impact moves of late. The ones he's tried to make haven't turned out well. I'm not overly thrilled with the term, but I guess we'll see how it goes. Bonus is if this gets Babs to sign on for some term, otherwise it's kind of "meh" for me.

Rabble rabble rabble

That does not mean he's going to be fired at all lol. Red Wings fans HATE Holland right now and the guy just got an extension. Why? Because 99% of fans are blithering idiots who can't see past the next immediate season, so I'm sure the organization really couldn't care less what we think. EDIT: There's no option available better than Holland

Four more years of no Stanley Cup! Whoo hoo!

This is gonna be good.

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Jurco Franzen-Weiss-Nyquist Tatar-Sheahan-Alfredsson Miller-Helm-Abdelkader Those would be the 4 regular lines if I was the coach, at least to start the season and assuming everyone is good to go health wise. Callahan would get one reserve spot, the other would be a toss up between Glendening and Joakim "Swedish Emmerton" Andersson, depending on if I wanted a tenacious but unskilled bull dog or a guy with some skill but zero grit as a spare center. I'd probably go with Glendening. If I felt really pressured, I'd play Cleary 5 minutes a night the first 10 games to get his bonus then demote him and recall Callahan.

KFQ!

Plenty RFA's around the league haven't signed yet. It's absolutely nothing to be worried about. When it comes to Holland, who exactly are you all hoping we were going to replace him with???

Its not like the guy scheduled a two week vacation to the moon and skipped free agency the last few years. There's plenty of info that suggests he kicked a ton of tires, made several intriguing offers, and in most cases those players chose not to come here for various reasons. He's not soley to blame for our recent downturn. You don't lose people like Lidstrom, Rafalski, and Osgood and replace them all right away...in some cases you may never be able to replace talent like that.

Screw the haters lol... Good deal... Babs you are next

Unf***ing real constant downslope since 2009 and yet 4 year extension 4 years ago we could have had the Captain and Kenny as VP so disappointed

I love the Fitbit, actually. It's the primary reason this has worked so well. I'm down 42 pounds now, and getting close to the goal -- want to hit the gym and build up muscle mass as the weather starts to cool. (That and adding equipment in the basement.) The Fitbit + syncing with MyFitnessPal (watch calorie intake) and MapMyFitness is FANTASTIC. Can't recommend it enough. Has made this process tremendously easy.

my apologies to the typo but the upside is that this thread has become fun to read plus, maybe the accidental nickname will stick :-)

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Jurco Franzen-Weiss-Nyquist Tatar-Sheahan-Alfredsson Miller-Helm-Abdelkader -thats the lineup i want too. my argument is we can have both alfie and jurco. maybe jurco will start in GR and miss 15-20 games but thats not a big deal. yes starting the best 12 forwards does involve jurco, but it also involves alfie.

He plays for the Dertrert Rerd Werngs

Bought time we got a big signing!!!

Herlmer

His plus/minus would imply otherwise. The guy was a consistent minus player throughout the last decade of his career (ie the 90s), which at the most fundamental level tells me that the strength of his possession game wasn't enough to keep the puck out of his own zone, nor out of his own net. The opposition consistently outscored his line. And I know +/- is a team stat and blah blah blah, but you'd think for someone who holds almost every offensive record in the books, and continued to produce at an elite level up until his retirement, he would have been able to have at the very least a decent plus minus for half those seasons, especially because that negative +/- was pretty consistent over three different teams (and who knows how many linemates) in the 90s. The guy was an offensive god, but his defense was little to non existent. The real question is had the Wings acquired him, would he have been Bowman's example for the Wings to adapt a two-way game as Yzerman did, or would he have continued to do what made him famous? The last part is why in retrospect, I would have stuck with Yzerman (although in 1989 I would have made the trade 10 times out of 10).

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.

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.

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.

Should have left it. Helmer was misspelled. Babs was misspelled by my and you missed the misspellings of herlmer lol