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Is there a VPN you recommend?

AA should get roughly $2 mil a year on a 2 year deal right now, a little more on a 3 year deal. i'd be more than fine with him at $2.5 mil, because he's likely to outperform that. You should be willing to overpay guys who are projecting up, thinking he'll be overpaid now, but the last year or two of the deal he'll be good value. if you think a player might be a bad value at the end of the deal, he should be a higher end player (Zetterberg, Kronwall pre-injury) who you can't afford to lose. You don't overpay grinders approaching their 30th birthday and who will likely trend down, and who are only arguably worth what they make now but are almost guaranteed to be overpaid by quite a bit at the end of the deal.

You talk about how good the past was ... it's almost as if you were there ... bill

Mindfly was you dummy. Ohhhh but I think the one that took the bait was Jonas himself. Haven't you forgotten how he got banned last time? You just have to push him a little and his mouth lets the bannable words out This version of Bill has learned from past mistakes and becomes a good little boy when he goes too far. The question is.. do we pull the trigger or keep the entertainment going? I say keep it going.

McDavid is among the small percent of guys that teams skip the bridge deals for and try to lock up long term. You must realize that. McDavid's long term deal is like a UFA in terms of money since he would have just signed a bridge deal if they didn't offer something on the scale of a UFA type deal. The short RFA bridge deals is what E_T was talking about. They're not comparable to UFA deals (a.k.a Helm). So what's up with Athanasiou? I thought the agent said he'd make his decision this week and it's Friday, so....

Nah. I think people are reading too much into this situation. AA's an RFA with roughly one NHL season under his belt. He's cost-controlled. His only leverage is "KHL tho." Holland is refusing to play ball and that's good. If Holland does play ball and he does give AA a couple million dollars more than he'd like to, then he's setting a dangerous precedent -- specifically, that he can be bullied by 23-year-old NHL rookies. Overpaying older players is one thing, but overpaying older players plus failing to keep unproven 23-year-old RFAs under heel is a recipe for organizational ruin, in terms of cap management and the general no-bull**** culture within the locker room and within the organization. The Wings, as an organization, want younger players to be "team players." All organizations want this, but the Wings are especially big on it. The understanding is that the extra-long tour of duty in the AHL and the modest two- or three-year bridge deal are, in a way, loyalty tests. Put your head down, don't make a fuss, take the public shaming from Blashill and Devellano in stride, and when it's time for your big deal, you'll be handsomely rewarded. You'll be a Wing for life and will want for nothing. This is how the Wings roll, for better or for worse.