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Ah... So you mean the Wheelz are on da bandwagon? . Mwahahahahaha.

7th rounder turns out to be next Datsyuk

So proud of my Godson!

Great to see Mrazek and the Wings leave their troubles in Florida. All-around good game.

Missed the game, but checking the score, seems like a decisive win against a very good team. I see Mrazek got 2nd star. Great to see he rebounded quickly from the shelling by Tampa. He's got alot of confidence and skill, just needs more games in the NHL, and it looks like he'll get at least a few more before Howies back. I thought they MAY go with McCollum today, but it was a good choice putting Mrazek back out there quickly to shake it off.

Herzlich Wilkommen bei dem Haufen hier.

If OEL is so good, why would Phoenix give up on him at age 23?

Sweet Dreams (are made of this)- Eurythmics Really just an excuse to post this:

Is it possible to drop out of the top2? I thought the team that finished last couldn't drop any further down than the second pick. Buf has some great statistics going this season!

Honestly, I think some of our prospects are being grossly overvalued. Right now this defense corps consists of two legitimate Top 4 guys, with perhaps Quincey on the edge of that. Here's the thing... Cup contention or not, right now this team's got nothing in the way of defenders to help with a transition from the vets to the prospects. When you look up front, you've got guys like Nyquist and Tatar who are going to hold things down before Mantha and Larkin (hopefully) transition into solid players. Kindl and Smith should be the guys helping with that transition on the back end, but they're just not good enough. DeKeyser by himself isn't enough. I definitely think Detroit has something in guys like Ouellet and Sproul, but who's holding down the fort as they progress? You can only pile so much on Kronwall. If you can pull the trigger on Smith, Pulkkinen and a 1st for a legitimate offensive threat between the ages of 25-30, you do it. I wouldn't go as far as to say that those guys are replaceable, but they are most definitely expendable. As much as I enjoy Pulkkinen's possible upside, he's more of the same on this team. We've got the smaller skilled goal scorers in Tatar and Nyquist, with Mantha on his way soon. Without coming down on the guy too much, I do think that Ouellet is more than capable of doing the job Smith is doing now, and has better upside. It isn't about adding a piece to put this team over the edge. It's about adding a piece to make real improvements to this team so that they can remain successful. I'd rather not find out the answer to, "Can Ouellet, Sproul, Marchenko, etc. progress fast enough to offset Kronwall slowing down?" Waiving Lashoff was a proactive move by Holland, and I hope he's willing to make another one with some of the assets in the system now.

Nobody would take Franzen in a trade. If they try to waive him to GR, he'll retire and the Wings will be screwed. If they waive him and release him, the cap penalty screws them. The only real option is keep him and hope he either stays healthy, or sits on IR for the duration of his contract. Pulkinnen or Jurco won't be waived. If someone gets waived, it would be Andersson. The Wings don't let players go if they're going to be good, the guys they have lost on waivers have done virtually nothing. Knuble was the last good player the Wings let go because they didn't have room for a young guy, and that was more because Bowman wanted vets than anything to do with Holland.

I still don't like Quincey's contact. He's played much better and all that, but he's still overpaid. By a lot. As far as Cleary, I kinda don't care about them re-signing him this year. Whatever, let him play out one more year as the 13th forward and retire a Wing. I hated last year's signing though, but those circumstances were different. Either way, my point in bringing them up was just to say that while I thought Kenny was making questionable moves because he was washed up, he was really just putting bandaids on the problem until the kids could take over. Which has always been his stated strategy, but which I thought was a bad idea...until I saw how good they were. So, long story short, if Kenny moves a prospect or two for a veteran, I'll assume those prospects weren't 100% necessary. Because it's not like he doesn't know what good prospects look like. And if he doesn't, then I'll assume we've already got whatever we need in our system.

I think that goes for just about everyone Kip. I've always been a believer and supporter in Holland but there's no way I can sit here and say that I've never questioned any of his moves / personel decisions... He's made quite a few that I haven't liked and I'm sure he'll make quite a few more that I won't like. No GM is perfect, but Ken Holland is pretty ******* brilliant when it comes to managing his team. I actually didn't mind the Quincey signing and I like it now. I didn't mind the Cleary signing and I still don't. I hated the Tootoo signing from beginning to end, same goes for the Samuelsson signing, but that was worse than I even anticipated... I think the big thing though, is that all of these were basically stop gaps to get us through before the kids were ready. "In Kenny we trust"...

I bitched about the Tootoo, Sammy, Cleary, Quincey, etc. signings, trades, and re-signs. I was convinced that Holland was past it and didn't have any fresh ideas. Apparently he knew a little bit more than I did just how good his prospects were. Now our team is pretty legit. And we're certainly positioned to be VERY good in the next couple of years. So I've got to admit I was 100% wrong about Holland. At this point, when it comes to building a team, developing players, or acquiring talent, I'm going to defer to the guy who's got four Stanley Cup rings sitting on his mantle.

Andersson is a scrub. I place him slightly above Nestrasil, only because he's a decent penalty killer. I fully expect him to be the odd man out next season, either playing in Grand Rapids or with another club. No big loss. To say he has more value than Franzen is laughable. You can hate on Franzen all you want, it doesn't change the fact that, when healthy he can contribute on any given night. Is he streaky? Absolutely. But that's part of the package. I don't believe we need him to win games, and I would welcome a trade, but he is in no way, a player we NEED to get rid of... Holland waives Nestrasil to make room for the better player, Jurco, and people ***** because we lose an "asset". If Holland were to send Jurco down and keep Nestrasil on the team, people would ***** that he is not icing his best players... Holland just can't win with some fans... Oh well...

You said it yourself. Nestrasil was waived because he couldn't beat out Jurco (a guy with minor league options). Not because there was no room for him. If he'd been good enough to keep, Jurco would have gone down. If there's one thing you can say for Ken Holland, it's that he almost never lets an asset go for nothing. Hence, we've still got Kindl on this team. Nestrasil, Almquist, Emmerton, Mursak, etc. all had opportunities to play their way onto the team. If they didn't stick, it's because they weren't better than their competition (Jurco, Kindl, Glendening, Miller/Eaves/Andersson). When Ken Holland loses a player that he really wants to keep, I'll be happy to acknowledge it. But as of now, he's only losing guys who can't hack it.

What kind of math are you doing? Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Weiss, Franzen, Nyquist, Tatar, Helm, Abdelkader, Sheahan, Jurco, Miller & Glendening make 13 guys... Cleary's spot opens up the spot for Pulkkinen. How did Tatar begin last season? As a healthy scratch, working his way into the line-up. There's no reason to suggest that the same won't be done here. I'd even venture to say that the Red Wings could let Andersson go, letting Callahan or Ferraro take his spot on the roster. They've let RFA go before.

Ha LGW knows better. You've had a personal hatred for Franzen for as long as I can remember. And no Holland will not resign and keep Anderson at the expense of Jurco/Pulkkinen

Gotta love when the doom and gloomers are shown up. Does this mean the wheels are on the tank?

You are absolutely correct. That was actually the reason the Wings had to play out the string with Sammy's contract. He was still considered injured during the buyout window. It's sounding more & more though that Franzen's career could very well be cut short by concussion symptoms. If that's the case, the Wings will get cap relief with the sole exception that they'll need to be at or below the cap with Franzen's salary included for one day at the start of each season which is what Philly & Boston have to do with the Pronger & Savard situations. Well, that is until the trolls in NHL HQ decide to change that rule too eventually.

Not really without monster there are no playoffs

Getting rid of Gus would be extremely dumb. Goalie depth is a very good thing to have and mrazek can keep working the kinks out of his game in the AHL.

Come playoff time, dont you think that having Petr playing in the AHL playoffs is better for his development then sitting on the bench in the NHL? If Howard goes down, we can always call him up. You can never have too much playoff/clutch playing time to further your development as a player. Even NHL goalies will say this.

He's a very promising young player but still needs to work on his puck possession.

Did anyone contact Pronger?