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I remember watching TSN all day on July 1st, and they had Mike Green ranked as the #1 Free Agent. I also remember the year Weiss was signed, and he was ranked as I believe the #4 Free Agent. I think when someone has a point that they are trying to push, it doesn't matter how many examples you or I give, they will just give reasons to dismiss them. ie. "He doesn't count because he is too old, not in his prime, didnt work out, too long ago, he was unproven etc." Holland has been plenty active when it comes to bringing in UFA's. Now, if the question was "Is Ken Holland bringing in UFA's that live up to their expectations?" that may be a different story.

Yep. But Illitch should have told him if he didn't want to move up, then GTFO. I doubt he regrets not doing something like that, because Holland is still around when clearly it's time for him to go, but I don't see how he can't be thinking about it. That and Nill turning the Stars into the highest scoring team in the NHL, and a cup contender, or at very least almost there. I know many of us think about it.

You're splitting hairs. He's won one more playoff game and had what 2 more regular season wins? If he's "better" the difference is negligible. Efforts to paint Blashill as some kind of failure are almost entirely attributable to a frustrated fan base which is unaccustomed to transitioning teams.

I hate Jeff Blashill because he's a rookie coach who finished the regular season with just as many points and only 2 few playoff games than his predessessor did the year before. What a loser! He should be more like Babcock, who took over a presidents trophy winner and coached them to a first round mauling by the 8th seeded Oilers in his first season with the Wings. Or we could just give it a minute and not be so absurdly reactionary.

Blasphemy.

3-1 Blues, but it's only the first. Chicago could turn this around before the end of the period, but I hope tonight's the night.

Well, there's also no doubt that Babcock had a worse team and yet performed better. So there's that. I agree, though, that a lot of the anti-Blashill stuff is just frustration, which is why I don't want him gone. But he did, beyond a doubt, screw up and botch things especially late in the season. But coaches have growing pains just like players. If he has another terrible year next year with a similar roster, then we should start talking replacements.

I'd say accomplishment wise it was the exact same. Rookie coach Blashill gets the team to playoffs and gets eliminated 1st round The best coach in all of hockey Mike Babcock gets the team to playoffs and gets eliminated in 1st round in 2012, 2014, 2015 ^ I'm wondering if it's the coaching that's the issue or if it's that our players are no longer good enough? The coaching this year was definitely weaker than Babcock's coaching but not that much weaker. There's some inconsistencies and issues that need to be figured out (PP, usage of players, etc). We need better players plain and simple. I'm really hoping Holland goes big this year. And I'm sure he will try. The issue might be that players no longer see us as an attractive destination.

So, what exactly is Lundqvist the "King" of?

I think the Wings making the playoffs had more to do with Larkin and Mrazek having league-leading individual performances for half the season while everyone else was busy s***ting the bed. Literally every other player on the team played quantitatively worse than last year. This was a team that was on paper supposed to be better. The league-leading power play from last year now also finally had a right-handed qb in Green and a veteran player and recent Stanley cup winner in Richards. They finally got rid of Weiss. Tatar, Nyquist, Sheahan were all a year older and closer to their prime ages. And then when we had an opportunity to avenge our 7 game series loss to Tampa from last year with what should be a stronger roster, and Tampa without their top goal scorer and a top paring defenseman, the Wings managed only a single playoff victory. By all accounts this year was a disappointment and almost every player on the roster did not perform up to expectations, even if you want to factor in some sort of rookie coach handicap. Hopefully Blash has learned some things throughout the season, and uses the offseason to learn a few more things, and comes back next year in better position to get the most of this team. And hopefully he gets some help from Holland.

Regardless of his familiarity, its harder to coach at the NHL level than the AHL level and a coach, just like a player needs time to adjust their game to the increased competition. Its the reason why almost no coaches (or none) have won a Cup as a rookie. Its really hard to do right away. Blashill inherited a borderline playoff team and did just as well as his predessessor. Anybody expecting an immediate transformation was being unrealistic. Coaching a borderline team into the playoffs as a rookie coach is quite an accomplishment. He wasn't perfect, no doubt, but he did a good job considering the team is in the middle of a transition. I'd be far more disappointed with the result if he took over an established team full of prime stars and underperformed in the playoffs. He had almost the exact same season, with a very similarly transitioning team, as Dave Haskoll in Philadelphia and nobody is saying that rookie coach should be fired.

I think the one thing, aside from replacing Ferschweiler, that we need to do is try to move up in the draft as far as is reasonably possible. Not into the top 5 or anything, but as high as we can. There are a ton of high end defensemen in this years draft and most have good size. None will go in the top 5. We currently draft 16th. Move up as far as possible and take the best offensive dman of the bunch. That's our biggest organizational need.we already have our future top centers and goalie, plus a ton of good wingers. We just need that future offensive guy to pair with dekeyser and we look good going forward.

What did you hear about him that wasn't great? I think he's gonna be a redwing for sure , probably a 3rd-4th line agitator who's gonna be a grinder and score some timely goals and show up in the playoffs May not rack the points up but I think he's gonna be a valuable player down the road ... Time will tell though

Prongers hit is lower than pavel's ....a budget team is always looking to spend the least amount of money as possible And we don't need to panic and start signing a bunch of these ufa's you listed and handcuff us for the future(it's a week ufa class) If we wanted to free up cap space and sign a ufa or do a trade then we'll have to do trades and get rid of money(Howard,Ericsson)

If Holland decides to step down, I'm pretty sure the job is Yzerman's or Draper's. I have zero desire to have Don Maloney as the GM of Detroit. They guy has accomplished nothing compared to Ken Holland. I think you said it best when you listed his career accomplishment in Arizona as drafting 3 players. and making it to the 3rd round 1 time. Also, you are using 2012 as an example of Arizona getting in to the playoffs with a "shoestring budget".....Arizona's cap hit that year was 61,792,917, Detroit's was 61,868,709. He had plenty of money to spend that year. http://www.spotrac.com/nhl/cap/2011/ Dean Lombardi did a great job in LA, though we are talking a 10 year re-build (7 years on his watch), I dont believe Wings fans would deal well with this which is evident to me by the reaction to the current re-build. But, if Holland stepped down, and Dean became available, I would be ecstatic with him. Jason Boterill, I have zero idea how to evaluate a guy who is an assistant GM. I have no opinion on him, but I would rather have a GM with the pedigree of a Holland or Lombardi unless they were groomed for the position (ie. Yzerman, Draper). So I guess I would say no to him.

The problem is i don't want to give up a 3rd rounder to trade datsyuk's contract , why should we have to give up that high a pick to help a team who don't want to reach the bottom cap? We're doing them a favor as well by them saving 5-7 million actual cash , makes no sense to me Trade his contract to Arizona for Chris pronger's contract or suck it up for one season and give kids like mantha and athanasiou 14-16 minutes a night It's one season

I don't understand all these rumblings I'm reading online about how the redwings will have to give up a good prospect or a 2nd-3rd rounder to get rid of datsyuks contract If we're trading his contract to a team like Arizona who doesn't wanna spend to the bottom and get to save actual money , then how is it there the ones doing a favour for us? The way I see it were helping eachother out but we have to give up a good asset as well? In my mind a 7th should be more than enough and they get to save 5-7 million , don't get it Is there any way we could trade datsyuks contract for pronger? We'd have to pay 575 000$ actual money as where as Arizona would pay no money and save more money as datsyuk's cap number is higher If that scenario isn't doable I'd ether save the asset, and suck it up for one season and ACTUALLY play some of the kids ! Wanna free up cap space to sign some bodies? Get rid of Howard and Ericsson ... 10 million right there

Saying "he doesn't like to do it" means "doesn't do it" to me. Why would his mindset have any bearing on anything? From your characterization, I can deduce that we might get Yandle, but, hey, Holland will have an internal battle about it. If you're interested in predicting whether we'll sign a UFA, then we're looking at whether we've done it in the past. My list was not everyone from the past 10 years. Only Hossa is from that long ago. The rest were all brought in the last 5 years (Conklin was brought in twice - once a few years ago). I'm sure there are some that I didn't list as well - someone mentioned Cole, Zidlicky and Coliacovo, Huskins, were also other players from outside the organization. Alfie, Weiss, Green, Dekeyser were all top UFAs in their years. Alfie and Weiss were past their primes, but Green and DK don't fit your categorization the UFAs we've brought in (yes, Green may be past his prime in the sense that he's not the award winner that he was, but he was 29 when we signed him and he's still a very good hockey player).

I just want to believe Datsyuk will be back even when the writing is on the wall.. this probability is honestly depressing me to see the players that were (are) larger than life to me slowly retire or age into such a limited role... if Datsyuk played a full season I wouldn't be surprised to see him around 70+ points at 38 years old. His speed has slowed down considerably but his hands,IQ and shot are still very much there.

Datsyuk about his current health after last night's game: Gonna miss those comments.

No he shouldn't. Larkin should enjoy time of from the game and then have an NHL summer in the gym, he doesn't need to play in useless tournaments like the WC, WC of hockey or AHL playoffs

Haha babbling click bait nonsense by a wanna be "insider?" Welcome to the off season

Glendening is not a top six player. He's a 4th line/ grind line type of player.

Hate ? Cmon man, are you like 12? The guy is a hockey coach. He got out coached big time and has a lot to learn at this level but at the end of the day he's just a dude and dudes make mistakes.

His voice sounds like Babcock's.