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Pretty much what Dabura has already said, but I think you're cherry picking names a little there. One of the best defensemen of all time and one of the most durable defensemen of all time... Suter is actually a pretty good comparable. Minnesota signed him to that massive contract, and while it's been good so far, how do you think it's going to look over the next 6 seasons? And what have the Wild done since signing Suter and Parise in 2012 free agency? Absolutely nothing. Also, as far as I know, none of those players have had any of the injury concerns that Karlsson has had. So no, Karlsson isn't the exception to the rule because he's 28. He's the exception to the rule (in my opinion) because of all the injury issues he's had over the past few seasons. If we were in our Cup window, I'd be all for signing Karlsson, even if I thought it might not be smart long-term. We're not in our Cup window. Not even close.

Bon Jovi is lazy and he sucks.

Trouba - Karlsson Hronek - DK Hicketts - Byram Stanley Cup.

Some of the bigger moves Yzerman made rebuilding the bolts: To PHI: Gudas, 1st, 3rd -------------- Bad. Coburn isn't a big enough upgrade to justify this. Gave away solid picks. To TBL: Coburn To BOS: Brett Connolly -------------- Possible example of what could become of Svechnikov? To TBL: 2nd, 2nd To ARI: DeAngelo --------------------- Bad. Poor return for a possibly very good young Dman. To TBL: 2nd To LAK: Bishop, 5th ------------------ Cernak was a great pickup, but Bishop may end up the superior G to Vasi To TBL: Budaj, Cernak, 7th To PHI: Filppula, 4th, 7th ------------ Gave away Fil and a 7th, but it saved cap space. Should never gave Fil that contract. To TBL: Streit To PIT: Streit To TBL: 4th To MTL: Drouin ----------------------- Good. Got rid of problem child and Serg is more valuable. To TBL: Sergachev To VGK: Gusev, 2nd, 4th ----------- Bad. Gave up a lot in picks and Gusev. Should never have acquired Garrison. To TBL: Vegas selects Garrison To NYR: Namesnikov, Howden, Hajek, 1st, 2nd ------ Good (so far) To TBL: McDonagh, Miller To PHI: Meszaros --------------------- Good. Meszaros turned out to be poop To TBL: 2nd To NYI: Wishart ----------------------- Good. Wishart ended up being nothing and Roloson was crucial to early TBL success To TBL: Roloson To COL: Downie ---------------------- Good. Turned Downie into a 1st. To TBL: Quincey To DET: Quincey To TBL: 1st To NSH: Caron, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd ---- Bad. Lindback ended up being worthless. Gave away Picks. To TBL: Lindback, Wilson, 7th To OTT: Conacher, 4th ------------- Good. Bishop is now one of the best and Conacher is AHL. To TBL: Bishop To NYR: St. Louis, 2nd -------------- Good. Great return for a player he couldn't keep. To TBL: Callahan, 1st, 1st, 7th To CBJ: Taormina, Tyrell ------------ Could have been a steal for Yzerman, but he let Marchessault walk after this trade To TBL: Marchessault, Smith To NYI: 1st ----------------------------- 1st ended up being Ho-Sang, the two 2nds ended up being forgettable (so far) To TBL: 2nd, 2nd He's acquired most of his players through draft and/or trades, and doesn't really have too many homeruns from the UFA market besides Stralman. He's passed out some suspect contracts to the likes of Callahan, Carle, and Filppula, but then he's also found unknown players like Johnson and Gourde who've contributed a lot. IMO it doesn't seem to me like Yzerman is overly good at trades or contracts... His real talent looks to be recognizing potential where others may not see it. This has led him to get Jon Cooper, Kucherov, Point, Palat, Roloson, Stralman, Johnson, Gourde, Bishop. Most of those names have been absolutely crucial to the Bolts success. However its burned him too on Carle, Filppula, Garrison, and Lindback, and not seeing it in Gudas, Marchessault, and DeAngelo. I think the difference has been Yzerman actively seeks to solve the problems when they arise. Carle bought out, Filppula dumped, Garrison dumped, Drouin stonewalled then traded. That's what I like about him, Holland has been content to just leave bad contracts on the books and wait them out.

Forwards tend to peak before age 28. Panarin will be 28 in October. Karlsson's body is breaking down. The other day some insider half-joked on Twitter that when the Sharks' run is over, Karlsson's going to check himself into a hospital. He probably has three elite years left, at most.

Even if you consider 28 to be "in their prime" (I'd say you're wrong), they're not going to be 28 for the duration of their contracts. I'm not here thinking that they'll sign and instantly decline. Even with the injury concerns, I think they'll have a few good years before the decline starts. The issue is, we're at least a few years away from contending, even with Karlsson and / or Panarin. I get it, you want Karlsson and Panarin. I don't. From everything I've seen, heard and read, I'd be shocked if we sign either.

Trouba.img He was wearing a Red Wings hat, but management told him he couldn't wear it. He decided to wear the Tigers hat instead. They didn't say anything about changing his boxers though... RedWingsBoxers.img

Yzerman will get him either way.

No, but if he's not willing to sign with a solid team in their Stanley Cup window then you have to think at the very least he wants to hit UFA. If that's the case we've got as good a chance as anyone, and probably better than most given that A) he's from here, and B) we have all the cap space in the world. Plus any team he'd likely to be traded to will be a bottom feeder because contenders don't tend to have an extra 7ish million dollars in cap space lying around. So given all that it'd be pretty dumb to trade for him. Agree with KRsmith, wait and sign him in UFA.

I mean, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be ecstatic to have Karlsson on the team. Because it's Erik Karlsson. But the dude is always battling through something and it's always the lower body. For a guy who's played a lot of hard minutes and whose game is built on mobility...it's a concern. I don't see why he'd want to become a Wing in the first place, so this is probably moot anyway.

See my reply in the other thread. He's always got something going on with the lower body. Usually it's some part of the legs. This year it's a nagging groin problem. It's a buyer beware situation. If we're going all in on Panarin and/or Karlsson, we have to make a serious push within the next three years. If it backfires and we end up weighed down by an enormous contract or two, everyone will be saying Yzerman is Holland 2.0.

The groin thing is the latest in a long line of injuries. At this point, his lower body is being held together with duct tape and prayer.

No one's denying he's one of the best defensemen in the NHL. The question is, Can you count on him staying at that level for the next however many years? If he didn't have a long history of significant leg-related injuries, there'd be no issue. But he does have a long history of significant leg-related injuries. And he's played an insane number of minutes already in his career. You have to wonder how well he's going to age. You have to wonder if he'll become an albatross halfway into his contract, maybe even sooner. If you're not getting Powerhouse Erik Karlsson for more than three years of that contract, then the contract is going to be a problem.

Imagine if we didn’t keep Lidstrom of Chelios till their 40s. Ryan Suter still plays like he’s 27. Duncan Keith at 35 still puts up big minutes and played all 82 games. Karlsson being 28 year old defender must be an exception to defender longevity.... Erik Karlsson is one of the best defensemen in the NHL and will be for a long time. Mark it.

Their soups are good.

Fact.

According to Helms NTC, starting in 2018-19 season, it can be voided between June 15, 2019 and trade deadlinbe 2020, because the Wings already failed to qualify for playoffs.

You know when you have DK as your number 1 pair defensemen, your defense sucks.

are hot dogs sandwiches

Where did I say that? I have no issues with the site administrators. The ability to have differing viewpoints and discuss them without one side trying to silence the other because they don't like what they're hearing is exactly what is missing in too many places. We can disagree on things here and debate them. That's a good thing. I am very well aware of what the rules of the board are. Nobody's perfect and I think we can all say that we've broken a rule or 2 along the way (including you). It happens. And there are times when things that happen in the hockey world spill over into the social and political world. It's life. I dont think there's anything wrong with discussions that involve those things when they are hockey related. We can't just close off the rest of the world and pretend like life exists only on a 200 x 85 sheet of ice. The hockey world is bigger than that. And so should be the discussions when appropriate.

Winging It in Motown had a very good article explaining what Steve Yzerman had in place when he took over in Tampa Bay as GM. He also inherited the #6 overall pick then just as today. A good read going over all Yzerman's first year moves and what correlation it may have to the Red Wings https://www.wingingitinmotown.com/2019/4/21/18509160/how-aggressive-may-stevie-y-be-in-year-1

The Holland plan seemed to be: Wait out the bad contracts, Fill holes with stop-gap vets, draft and develop. A very conservative long-term approach. I think the biggest question with Yzerman will be: Is he going to continue waiting on the bad contracts, or will he do something creative to get rid of them sooner? We're not really going to be able to do much of substance under the cap until those contracts are addressed. After next season most of our young guns will need new contracts again which will throw us against the cap again if nothing is done. Helm should be traded and I'm hoping something can be done about Nielsen.

Get the f*** outta here with all that negative s***...

April 16th: Tampa is swept by CBJ April 17th: Press conference, Holland steps down as Red Wing GM, Yzerman announced as new GM June 1st: Press conference, Ken Holland is introduced by Dave Tippett as the first GM of the new Seattle franchise June 21st: Pending RFA Brayden Point is traded to Detroit in exchange for Andreas Athanasiou, Jacob De La Rose, and a 2nd round pick in 2019 June 24th: Brayden Point inks a 2 years $6 million AAV contract with the Detroit Red Wings June 25th: Both Nielsen and Daley are bought out of the remainder of their contracts by the Red Wings July 1st: Val Filppula inks a 2 year contract with the Detroit Red Wings worth $1.75 million AAV July 9th: Jacob Trouba accepts an offer sheet from the Detroit Red Wings worth $8 million AAV for 7 years July 15th: The Winnipeg Jets match the Red Wings offer sheet and retain the services of Jacob Trouba Day 1 of 2019/20 hockey in Detroit looks something like this: Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha Hirose - Point - Abdelkader Helm - Filppula - Zadina Ehn - Glendening - Rasmussen Svechnikov/Frk/Kuffner Dekeyser - Green Ericsson - Hronek Witkowski - Bowey Sulak/Cholowski Howard Bernier Larkin is given the C, Abdelkader and Dekeyser acts as A's, for the first time in history the Detroit Red Wings field a leadership group of entirely Michigan natives. The forward group clicks and our goals for per game climbs to 3.1 with a PP% hovering around 20% Despite Hronek having a breakout 45 point season, our goals against remains at about 3. Injuries to Howard and average play by Bernier can't bail the defense out. We miss the playoffs and end up picking at #9 overall the next season

Very... I watched 4 of the 5 games, and the Griffs did not look good...