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What if we offer Columbus all of our 2013 draft picks?! Oh.. wait, nevermind.

Bertuzzi is worth it for the shootouts alone.

Emmerton is useless. He rarely scores, doesn't hit, is only average at faceoffs, is small, and regularly blows coverage on defense. There's nothing to recommend him.

WOW are you even serious???? .... Crosby, Ovechkin, Heatly, Hossa and Kovy put up on worse teams than the BJs in their past.??????? those players put up better numbers and they were on worse teams than columbus???how the hell was pittsburgh,washington,san jose etc... worse than columbus?? columbus is a laughing stock , and who the hell did rick nash ever have to play with???? all those players you mentioned above ALL had someone to play with rick nash has been a lone ranger in columbus his whole career

i would rather have a prust like player over almost any free agent

Too bad realignment couldn't have helped out with that. Its good to see Holland being aggressive though. Asking about Nash leads me to believe he's looking to shake things up or make some serious upgrades to this team. Bringing in Nash, to me, would be like when we brought in Brendan Shanahan. He was a great goal scorer, in his prime and desperately wanted to play for a contender. I like to think it would have a similar effect on this team.

Babs says Helm is the best 3rd line centre in the NHL bar none. Kenny MUST SIGN PRUST. 3rd line is Cleary-Helm-Bert and the 4th line hopefully will be Prust-Abs-Eaves.

Unless we could get Tampa or some other team to help us out again I don't see this happening. We would have to give up way more then hes worth.

So would Parise and Datsyuk, difference is Datsyuk doesn't have soup for brains! Nor does he dive all over the place, nor does he start things and run away... Parise can either play with a Man or play with a weaselly crybaby who is one hit away form missing another 60 games...It's his choice.

Christ..... What we need are less people to side with one side or the other and more people who want to see BOTH sides work out a deal. Lets make sure as fans of the sport that we want to see an NHL season. To hell with one side over the other. Its a sport with 3.3 billion dollars of revenue. They should be able to work out a deal and not sacrifice part or all of the season. If there are any games lost, or a season lost, I will be blaming both sides equally for being idiots. After all, it was both sides that contributed to the last lockout.

No suprise. GREAT NEWS!

Am I the only one who wouldn't pay a guy who's never played more than 33 games in a season 4 million a season? I mean he was very good in his 60 some-odd games he's played but there have been a ton of goalies who have had a great season only to fall apart the next. If they move Luongo and he falls apart that fan-base will go crazy.

if it was up to me cleary and/or bertuzzi wouldnt be back and replaced with guys like prust ,doan etc.. unfortunetly ken holland is overly loyal ... bertuzzi never should of been resigned to 2 yrs especially now that hes 37

The difference is, in a word, defense. Crosby has no d-game; Datsyuk wins Selkes.

Good god. I read the title as Wings have acquired Nash and almost fainted

love abdelkader but i think prust is better right now at what he does , id much rather have BOTH the more grit on this team the better if we can add prust and someone else like doan or ott or whomever itll only help the team 1.6 for prust for 3-4 yrs he's 28 and its not a crazy contract youd find hard to trade away if ever holland wanted to

Smith gives our team offense and gives the other team offense.

no way he comes here. Holland doesn't blow anyone out of the water. He's my favorite non Red Wing but being in the same division just would be too much for Howson to accept and trade the face of their franchise to a division rival.

Another steal Quck 10 years and only 5.8 cap hit thats less than Brzygalov is making *lol*

Doan/Semin/Suter/Prust/Garrison....they are all still out there...they want Stanley...WE want Stanley...it's like the stars are aligned!

There would be an agreement in place: the current agreement. From a public relations standpoint, taking this stance borders on genius. IF NHLPA votes to enter next season without a new CBA and agrees to play under the current one, it backs the League into a corner and has the owners muttering to themselves "never saw this coming".

Well there goes my hope for next year haha. Hope he stays healthy even for the finals, I would want to beat the Penguins at their best.

I think if givin a chance Doan would take those comments back in a heart beat. I would take a player that gives a s*** over one that isnt interested in the regular season 10 times out of 10.

If Holland can't make some serious stuff happen this offseason to put a good team on the ice come October, it'll likely be the start of a multi-year skid where we struggle to make the playoffs and/or exit early. If that happens after he also blatantly sat on his hands the last few offseasons likely because he didn't want to make moves for emotional reasons as opposed to hockey reasons, his legacy will be hurt, no doubt about it. Let's be honest, Scotty Bowman had more say than Holland in putting together the '97 and '98 Cups, in '02 we had the Yankees on ice in the non-cap era and Scotty Bowman influence, and then in 2008, we still had the Scotty Bowman influence and many of the original guys that Scotty Bowman helped bring along. And I can't say that it's not interesting that we haven't done as well in the offseason at signings or during the season with trades since Bowman left the organization. Maybe he had nothing much to do with it at that point, but it's none the less intriguing to me. He goes to Chicago the following season, they sign Hossa long-term (which Holland should've and could've done) and they win the Cup in 2010. (Yes, I know the Chicago argument is a stretch...) But in any event, Holland is clearly setting up his own legacy at this point and has been since the shadow of Scotty Bowman left for good prior to the summer of 2009 I believe. That was a terrible offseason for us, much like every one since. We've not gotten past the 2nd round since then either. We lost in the 1st round last season! The signing of Franzen long-term (especially considering the Hossa angle) is looking more and more questionable. He has to basically replace the core of our defense, no longer building around one of the greatest players in history, but around Kronwall, who's a good to great player at times no doubt, but he's no Lidstrom. Howard had a great year last year up until injuries (and likely made the skaters look a lot better than they were for much of the season) and he never fully got back to form, but if he struggles this year (you never know with goalies...) coming off that funk hanging around all summer, he's suddenly got a starting goalie issue on his hands too. Bottom line, he's got a lot to prove this summer, and if he fails to put a competitive team on the ice, we're likely going to be stuck in a rut for awhile. Dats and Z aren't getting any younger either and our young forwards aren't goal scorers. Given the huge likelihood for struggles on D, the mild uncertainty surrounding a younger goalie who still hasn't fully proven himself and an offense that struggled to score goals when it counts most last year, Holland is going to need a miracle to come out looking clean. And if the legend is worth it's while, maybe he'll pull one out of his pocket. But at this point, it's likely that anything less than signing Suter and Parise is going to be viewed as a failure, because you need both of them to come close to making up for losing a guy like Lidstrom at both ends, and Lids only played D! And even if he secures them both, he still needs another 2/3 defensemen and a solid backup goalie with more NHL experience so Jimmy can get some breaks and stay healthy and positive. I'm hoping for the best, but I wouldn't be shocked if this was an ugly offseason. I also wouldn't be shocked if Ken Holland wasn't the Wings GM in 1-2 years. If he blows it and we don't make the playoffs, I could see him being done. If it happens again the year after, he better be fired. It's time for Holland to prove he can do more than be the first guy to sign superstars to long-term creative contracts that circumvent the cap. We'll know a lot more by next Monday.

I think this off-season will go very far in defining Ken Holland as a GM. It will show whether his inactivity at the last 2 trade deadlines and last summer were smart move (saving cap and roster space for a big free agent push this summer) or if he lacks the ability or desire to make necessary changes to the makeup of his club in order to stay competitive. I've been pretty critical of Holland's moves (or more specifically, lack thereof) when it appears the Wings are stale and in need of a wakeup call. I feel he's hung on to some players for too long (Chelios, Maltby, Holmstrom, and now Bertuzzi) at the expense of critical NHL development time for some of the younger players, I think he lets prospects sit in Grand Rapids for too long--Brendan Smith should have been with the Wings for most, if not all, of last season and basically been Nick Lidstrom's shadow, playing with him in all situations (what better way to learn??), and I can't take him seriously when he says he expects his team to compete for the Stanley Cup every year, but there are no repercussions for players who woefully underperform when the team falls short (i.e., nobody "essential" gets traded away, which sends a message to all remaining players). I can't give credit to Holland (as GM) for the '97 or '98 Cups, as he was in the process of being handed that team just as they reached the top of the league. The '98 team was on a mission after the limo accident. The '02 Cup, he'll get credit, but he had Ilitch's open bank vault and fit the right pieces into place. The '08 Cup and '09 final, that's all him. 21 straight playoff appearances is very impressive. But the last 4 Cup champs were teams that missed the playoffs in the first season after the lockout, and 3 of the 4 Conference finalists this year missed the playoffs that season. Those teams have had better chances to restock their systems with higher draft picks. In my opinion, Holland cannot afford to miss out on the best players available, whether it's through free agency or trade. Time for change, time for improvement.