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I agree that teams need offensive defensemen that can drive possession, but teams also need steady, reliable, two-way defensemen such as DeKeyser. This is not a home-run deal by any stretch, but I think it's a solid contract, one that absolutely needed to get hammered down. We certainly could not afford to lose DeKeyser, and although I thought he might take a bit of a hometown discount, I doubt we could have gotten a whole lot lower than what he signed. Look around the league at some of the number 2 / 3 defensemen (which is what I believe DeKeyser is) and see what kind of contracts they're on... Tobias Enstrom - $5.75M over 5 years. Marc Staal - $5.7M over 6 years. Jeff Petry - $5.5M over 6 years. Dan Girardi - $5.5M over 6 years. Brooks Orpik - $5.5M over 6 years. Matt Carle - $5.5M over 6 years. James Wisniewski - $5.5M over 6 years. Jay Bouwmeester - $5.4M over 5 years. Dennis Wideman - $5.25M over 5 years. Zach Bogosian - $5.14M over 7 years. Andy Green - $5M over 5 years Andrew MacDonald - $5M over 6 years. Alexander Edler - $5M over 6 years. Paul Martin - $5M over 5 years. Is there a single one of them you can say is definitively better than DeKeyser? Nope. DeKeyser needs to be paired with a number one puck moving defenseman, and then we would finally see what he is really capable of. No one is saying he's elite, and he's not being paid like he's elite. He's a solid number 2 / 3, and that's exactly how he's getting paid. Good contract, that has the potential to turn out to be a great contract...

The face you make when someone mentions the Swedish Mafia

I just thought of that game compared to the baptism scene. every Ottawa goal as one of the murders.

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2016/07/red_wings_would_like_to_acquir.html

he looks more like a Bond Villain... https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/sports/hockey/2007/10/27/hockey_horror_picture_show/borje_salming_recovers_from_cut_to_theface.jpeg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpeg

Canada should have a sofa protection program. Saw this poor feller the other day trying to hitch a ride, headin' Californee way from Tennesse

when will the madness stop? to them sofas and our retinas

That's what made it good. Exactly how Grapes would have said it.

It craks me up when he says "I mean, he's no Bobby Orr..."

OMG he nailed him ahaahahahah

DK's face after reading that article

I think Karlsson's +/- is as much a factor of playing on crappie teams than anything against him

Lol at Dennis Wideman and Wisnewski

I'm not a fan of this deal. We overpaid for a middle-pairing defenseman who hasn't demonstrated top-end ability. His basic stats are underwhelming, his advanced stats are awful (granted, brutal deployment is probably a contributing factor there), and he has no extraordinary quality/skill/characteristic that separates him from the pack of good-but-not-great NHL defensemen. At this point in time, he's a #3 or #4 defenseman. That we consider him our best defenseman is a testament to how horribly inadequate our blue line is.

Because of the Swedish connection, I can only see that picture as the famous scene from The Seventh Seal.

Kronwall is Sonny and Ericsson could be Fredo

Idk, something about Swedish Mafia Don influencing the future captain or something. Whatever caption pleases you.

That was a burn. He wasn't happy at all

Even Trevor Thompson could play defense on him.

Agreed. I wasn't disputing your point, just clarifying a couple that have already signed.

goddam holland signing everyone to long term contracts but we like our team amirite?? jk I like it. Dekeyser's a solid player.

Right about perfect. That's the going rate for a second pair guy, and he's a very good one, and that should be a still in a few years.

Whitney - Modano - Grigorenko Leino - Weiss - Bertuzzi Kopecky - Williams - Kohn Cole - Legwand - Tootoo Kuznetsov - Hatcher Golubovsky - Krupp Wallin - Smith Ranford Gustavsson No Derian Hatcher? That was one of the first names I thought of. I remember how excited I was when we got him and then the injury happened.

Rosemary Grace was born at 9:10am this morning, 8lbs 8oz and 20 inches long. She's absolutely perfect. Mommy and baby are both doing well!