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You can hate all you want. I'm quite happy to have those players for the foreseeable future. Can't wait till the season starts so the doom and gloomers can stop making up things to moan about. We're already talking about a cap crunch when Larkins contract is up? Christ...

Can you explain your hate for Nyquist? I really don't get it. They guy has been one of our best offensive players over the past 3 years, and he has a pretty small cap-hit for what he does. If he was getting 7 or 8 mil per year, then I would get it. He had a down year last year, but its not like he was garbage or anything. Pretty much every fantasy magazine I have read this year have him as our leading scorer getting around 30 goals. Not bad for a 4.5 mil cap hit. Is it the Swedish thing?

Nice one timer by Frk. Kid can really shoot the biscuit. That's the exact type of thing that Pulkkinen needs to do at this level. Unfortunately he might be a bit too slow and/or small to go into traffic and get a shot off like that.

Because you have a history of bs arguments against Swedes. That's why. Ok scorer?? 28 goals, 27 goals and 17 goals in a year where entire teams scoring was down. Lmao at "ok scorer". When was the last time we had players score 28 and 27 goals two years in a row on our team? And you do realize Tatar is about to get a fatter check than Nyquist is when his contract renews right? And Abdekader isn't overpaid. This has been disproved in these forums time and again. Do we need to do it again?

...but Nielsen doesn't play the game that Backes still plays, despite being broken. So, Nielsen will probably still have some legs. Chara is also ALREADY a former shell of himself. Lucky for Boston, he only has this year and next left on his contract. Also, how many more days before this season starts... Lefty's starting to get salty. He needs some games STAT.

I believe Howard is a much better goalie then E is a D-man in 2016, plus after this season Howard will have 2 years left on his contract opposed to E having 3 years left. If Howard shows this year that he is still a legit starting goalie, I could easily see a team taking a chance on him. Secondly, with Mrazek, we just don't need him, so if Howard has a great year, that increases his value. E on the other hand IMO is going to keep regressing and I cant see a team trading for a guy who by that time will likely be solidified as a third pairing guy with a 4mil+ cap hit for 3 years, it's just a completely different situation. Not to mention, if E proves me wrong and becomes a top pairing guy again which could happen, unlike Howard, Holland will keep him. E plays good we keep him, E plays bad we have to keep him. That's why I don't see E being moved. Also, when I say I see him being moved, I do include the expansion draft in that statement. Las Vegas will need to hit the cap floor, and if they bring on a young goalie, they are going to want a vet to play along side him. Howard gives them cap for a short period of time, and I think he could really help a youngster.

Leafs will finish higher than us this season? Not a chance. I'll take that bet any day... Also, please stop lumping Nyquist in with the useless and / or overpaid players. He's neither and you're the only person that would suggest that he is. Just another player you're going to inexplicably hate on forever I guess...

Yeah, ideally Vegas would take Howard or Ericsson, but unfortunately I doubt they will. I see them taking a Sheahan or Helm (if not protected). If we could somehow manage to get Vegas to take one and trade the other (retaining $1-1.5M in salary), that would be huge for this team going forward...

Yeah, but it doesn't matter really. Well, it does since he'll be starting games here and there, but he's not being counted on as the #1 anymore. And if he really sucks, there's always Coreau. Can't wait to see him play some regular season games in the NHL. Guy is huge, almost as tall as Ben Bishop, and has really gotten good and improved his skills these past couple seasons. Hopefully he'll get a shot at full time backup in Detroit once Howard moves on, instead of the tradition of signing some veteran journeyman backup and keeping him around for a season or two too long.

For all the americans who don't know British slang, I'll laugh at this one.

Ya he was okay last year until december and then sucked for the rest of the year. So not gonna hold my breath.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it&v=mgtjcP7huFE Got to love Ott. He's gonna have a lot of fans here. Blashill sounds pretty high on him too. Great pickup!

Holland didn't need that deal to look dumb, just look at his recent resignings and that's proof enough, he's been overpaying for years.

How dumb does this make Holland look? What was KFQ (as he came to be known) being paid here?

So I guess we are debating the re-build lol. Doing the same things over and over again when you have had great success, is hard to argue against. The last time Holland did a re-build on the fly was when he had to transition from Yzerman, Shanny, Hull, Luc, Hasek, Fedorov, Larionov and others, and Holland did it successfully and won a Stanley Cup, almost 2. This time, he is doing the same thing, but in a completely different system (ie. cap) which means you cannot do it as fast and it must be more youth based due to the cap. Here is our top 20 that played most nights (12 Forwards, 6 D, 2 Goalies) in 2012, I will bold anyone who is no longer in our projected top 18 for 2016/17: Cleary, Datsyuk, Franzen, Filppula, Zetterberg, Hudler, Miller, Abby, Bertuzzi, Helm, Emmerton, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, White, Kronwall, Stuart, Quincey, E, Howard, Conklin Assuming E and Miller get a starting spot (which is not a given), we have gotten rid of 13 guys. HUGE amount of turnover in just 4 years. On our roster now we have Larkin, Mrazek, AA, Mantha?, Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan, DD, Marchenko, with Jurco, Pulk, XO, and Sproul trying to break into the lineup and alot of top prospects in the minors led by Svechnikov and Mantha? in the waiting. Without a question, Holland is re-building. Now, whether or not it is successful remains to be seen. When the mandate from ownership is to keep your streak alive (dont kid yourself, Mr. I cares about this streak, it's his legacy), but you also have to re-build, that isn't the easiest task out there. I will say though, it can be a very efficient way of going about it as creating a culture of losing can be an awful thing (ask any Lions fan about this). You talk about Edmonton, Buffalo, Toronto, Winnipeg, Florida and the Isles, but how much success has actually been obtained by any of these teams with their tank jobs? Who cares about message board/media hype, what matters is results on the ice. Edmonton has been a joke of a franchise since 2006, how many #1 overall picks and top #5 picks have they had and they still have not gotten into the playoffs. McDavid does appear to be on a different level, but if anyone could screw him up, it would be them. Buffalo has done nothing and have not made the playoffs in years, I think you over-hype Eichel a bit and put wayyyy to much pressure on the kid. Florida got in last year at a high seed, but were bounced early and until they can show consistency, I have a hard time seeing their transition as a success. Toronto and Winnipeg have done nothing, and while the Isles have been consistent in the regular season that past few years, have won 1 playoff series since 1993! I cant see how the Isles can be looked at in a higher light then Wings right now. The only thing the Isles have done that the Wings have not, is they got a #1 pick who they may lose in a year or two. Now dont misinterpret me, I am not saying all of these teams are failing or are going to fail, what I am saying is that the teams you listed have not accomplished anymore then the Wings with their re-build. I know you only think a player can be great if he was taken top 5, but there is no reason not to think that Larkin will not be our #1 centre as like I have showed before, statistically speaking he is at the same level as Eichel. Either way, we are going in circles. You want the Wings to get a top 5 pick and to bottom out, I do not. The only way to see if this re-build is working is to give it time. I hope you can see this. On a side note, Cleary was mentioned in my post